Escaping Ogygia
by StarsAreWorlds
Summary: I woke up on a island. I didn't remember anything but my name, Calypso. After the titan war, Piper, Leo, Annabeth and Percy from Camp Half-Blood and Jason, Hazel and Frank from Camp Jupiter are sent to Ogygia for unknown reasons. Together, they must defeat Gaia and win the war against the Giants.
1. Chapter 1

**All characters belong to Rick Riordan.**

I woke up on a island. I didn't remember anything but my name and age. My name was Calypso and even though I couldn't remember anything, I knew I shouldn't be alone on an island.

I was wearing a white t-shirt and long blue denim shorts and around my neck was a necklace. It had a simple elastic black string with a seashell and two pearls either side of it.

I was lying peacefully on a beach, on the white, powdery sand. I sat up slowly, gazing around the area. The ocean had small waves coming in to shore, just avoiding the area in which I had been laying. The beach seemed to go on for a while before curving out of my sight, behind the forest that was further inland.

That was when I snapped to my senses, my moment of bliss gone. I scrambled to my feet, cursing. In the reflection from the water I looked around sixteen, but I felt older. _Who in Hades leaves a teenager alone on a island_!

Wait. In _Hades_. Where did that come from? Despite my lack of memories I was pretty sure no normal girl refers to the greek gods.

Even though my memories were gone, it seemed that my knowledge and instincts were still there. Like, I could remember how to speak Ancient Greek, but I didn't remember how or why. Most importantly _why_.

Making use of my time, I walked around the beach to confirm I was on a island. It was a small island, it took me a rough 45 minutes to walk around before I came back to where I woke up, the place marked with the indentation in the sand from where I was lying down. I looked up at the sky, it was around midday. If I was going to go exploring before night, now was the time. I sighed and ventured into the forest.

The forest was lush and friendly, you could hear birds chirping but no human noises, proving the island was in fact, uninhabited. The further I went in, the more dense the forest became. It was as if the island was trying to stop me from going further. But something made me keep going, some instinct told me that I had to make to to the centre of the island.

I heard a rustling sound behind me and acting on pure instinct I pulled one of the pearls on my necklace and spun around, a silver hunting knife appearing and comfortably resting in my hand. I came face to face with a small rabbit coming out of a bush, the rabbit tilted its head at the hunting knife in curiosity before hopping away. I sighed in relief, then frowned.

Examining the necklace closer, I saw each pendant has a small symbol on it, the other pearl's symbol is also engraved in the hilt of my knife. I pulled on the pendant and an identical knife appeared in my other hand, I smiled, visualised them back on the necklace and they disappeared. I pulled on the seashell pendant and a beautifully fashioned, wooden bow appeared in my hand. I pulled back on the string and a silver-tipped arrow appears. I relax the string and picture the bow back on the necklace and continued walking.

At the point where the forest was so dark and thick I was about to give up, I found a clearing, I figured it was roughly in the middle of the island. The clearing was beautiful, it had soft, light green grass and a stream running down the left corner of it.

It felt like home, and every home needs a name.

"Ogygia," I whispered aloud.

* * *

 **Many years later**

I silently leap from my tree onto another and notch an arrow. I breathe in, then out and let the arrow fly. It finds its mark in a deer's chest. I jump down from the tree and finish the deer off with my knife, putting it out of its misery. I hold my hand over the deer's dead body and murmur a blessing, "αιώνια ειρήνη," and a soft wind blows through the forest.

I do this every time I kill an animal, it translates to _eternal peace_. I don't know where I got it from but it's in Ancient Greek. I somehow know. The blessing is wishing them peace in the afterlife. I do it more out of habit rather than sympathy. Like, _I'm sorry I killed you, better luck next time!_

I sling the deer over my shoulder with little difficulty and carry it to my house. Over the years the house has improved greatly. At first it was only a small hut, but now it has a sort of wooden veranda with a thin paper roof (as it never rains here) to grow flowers. The main room is a simple wooden room with a poorly made mattress. I have made a few sets of clothes but I am currently in the outfit I came here in. I am always wearing my necklace with my weapons.

On Ogygia, if you know where to go, you can find most animals, cows, sheep, you name it. They are all in the one place I have christened the 'Grove.'

I sit down on a log outside the house and start calmly skinning the deer. A normal person would be squeamish but I've gotten used to it. I hang the deer up and start sharpening my knives.

In my first year staying here I had discovered my magic. I have the abilities of a sorceress; for one, I can heal injuries. I've put up enchantments around my clearing so it is camouflaged from the outside and unless you know it's there, you can't get in. My bow has endless arrows that appear when the string is drawn back, and they're always sharp so I never have to do it the manual way. I have also made sure that my arrows cannot be affected by the wind or water.

I inspect the tip of my knife. I touch the top lightly and it pricks me slightly. Perfect.

I get rid of my knives and glance at the setting sun. I get ready for bed because of the growing darkness. Since the beginning I have hated the darkness. I'm not scared of it, I just hate it.

I haven't been stumped by being left on some island. Or from the lack of resources. Or from my nonexistent memories. It's been the darkness. Nightfall brings another day on this horrible island. THough this island may be my home, it's also my prison. I don't know why I have been trapped here, or what I did wrong, but I know someone put me here. And if I ever get off this island, they're going to pay for it.

That's when I feel a human presence on my island, or rather; seven.

 **-SAW**


	2. Chapter 2

**Calypso**

I immediately strengthen the borders around the clearing and head to the beach where I sensed the seen people I leap from tree to tree, slowing down as I approach the beach. I come to a complete stop in the tree closest to the beach and lose myself in the leaves.

Of the seven, three are girls and four are boys.

A blonde girl, a girl with kaleidoscope eyes and a cute impish boy stand behind a boy with sea-green eyes. A chubby boy and a golden-eyed girl stand behind a boy with electric blue eyes. Both groups are facing each other in a not-so-silent stand off.

They seem to be arguing, until finally the boy with the sea-green eyes yells at them, "Shut up! We're all obviously half-bloods so let's start with introductions."

Everyone quietens down and listens, even the blonde-haired boy.

"Alright, I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon," Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon says.

The blonde girl steps forward. "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

The kaleidoscope-eyed girl says, "Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite."

The cute impish boy speaks next, grinning crazily. "Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus."

The blonde boy steps forward warily. "Jason Grace, son of _Jupiter_."

The girl behind him sounds nervous. "Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto."

The last boy speaks. "Frank Zhang, son of Mars."

The blonde girl; Annabeth pulls Percy back and whispers hurriedly in his ear. His eyes widen slightly before he smiles reassuringly at her then turns to face the others. "Okay, I get that we're Greeks and you're Romans, and we have like, a _really_ , _really_ long history of bloodshed; but we're all stuck on an island! So, maybe we should work together to get _off_ it? _Then_ we can contimue with the killing and hating each other."

Annabeth rolls her eyes and kicks Percy in the foot, but the 'Romans' nod reluctantly and my curiosity grows. What did they mean by _half-bloods_? Why were they referring to Greek and Roman gods?

I have to pay attention again as they start walking into the forest. When they are a few metres into the forest I drop down next to 'Leo' and bring my knife to his throat.

"One wrong move and he dies," my voice rings across the forest.

Hazel lets out a strangled gasp while Leo emits a short girlish yelp.

Leo's aura is surrounded by fire. The words _fire-user_ pops into my head. From the expression on his face, he is considering using fire to escape.

I press my knife harder against his throat, drawing a drop of blood. "Don't even think about it Fire Boy."

I know I have confused the others and I figure out that he hasn't told them about his ability. I turn my attention to the leader of the 'Greeks'. "Why are you here?"

Percy steps forward calmly. "We don't know, we just woke up here. Do you know why we're here?"

"No," I reply shortly, my brain whizzing with all the possibilities.

I am brought out of my thoughts by the Piper girl. She steps forward and speaks calmly and evenly. "Let Leo go."

I feel an urge to comply and nearly drop my knife. After all, I _am_ being unreasonable. I _should_ let Leo go.

No, I'm being tricked.

I shake my head, trying to clear it and send a glare at Piper, making a long gash down Leo's arm to prove a point. The cut is shallow but still deep enough to bleed heavily. Unknown to them, Leo has his other arm behind his back and is trying to set me on fire. I feel a slight tickling sensation and I smirk at Leo as he looks at me in confusion. So only Leo can hear I whisper in his ear. "That won't work on me Valdez."

Percy pushes Piper back behind him and Leo continues to stare at me in astonishment.

"What do you mean by half-blood? Why do you keep referring to ancient gods?" I continue questioning them.

"We'll tell you all we know if you let Leo go," Percy bargains.

I shove Leo back to them, where Piper starts fussing over him in a sisterly way, only stopping to send glares at me.

"Let's start with introductions. I'm Perc-"

I cut him off, "I heard who you are, _Jackson_. Just tell me what you meant before!"

Percy simply shrugs. "The Greek and Roman gods exist. We are demigods, half god, half human. I'm a son of Poseidon, which is the god of the sea"

I nod not believing a word they're saying. "I've got somewhere you can stay when it gets dark."

I turn around and start walking back to the clearing. So, now not only am I stuck on an island, I'm stuck on an island with a bunch of lunatics! _Thank you_ , Fates!

There I go again, what the Hade- _heck_ is a 'Fate'? Even in my normal thoughts, I think things that confuse me. Maybe this group of seven aren't the only lunatics on this horrid island.

Percy manages to ask two more questions before I'm too far ahead. "Wait, what's your name? And where the Hades are we?"

I turn back around. "I'm Calypso, and you're on Ogygia."

Then I continue walking back.

 **-SAW**


	3. Chapter 3

**Calypso**

While the demigods behind me break into another argument, Annabeth catches up with me. "You're the banished daughter of Atlas," she states bluntly.

I don't know what she is talking about nor do I care, so I just ignore her and pick up my pace. The 'demigods' behind me have become quieter and Annabeth gets the hint and joins them.

 _Atlas_ , I muse. A Titan. Surely I cannot be the daughter of a Titan, right?

Why am I even considering this? The gods _don't_ exist, and these are just a bunch of lunatics I apparently have to take in for the night. I'm still considering leaving them out in the woods, especially if the blonde keeps onto me like that.

When we arrive I let down the borders for them only and put up new ones around my room. I stride into my room and grab seven sleeping bags, it gets rather cold at night so I grab two extra blankets as well.

I walk back out to where they are trying to enter my room and toss them all a sleeping bag and one blanket to the 'Romans' and one to the 'Greeks'.

"We'll talk in the morning," I say shortly.

I crawl into bed and pull the blanket over me. I know Annabeth is probably telling the others what little that she knows about me but I'm pretty sure she doesn't know my memory is gone.

 _I am standing in the middle of the Olympian throne room, Zeus is arguing with Artemis, Poseidon and Hestia. Zeus wants to kill me but the three of them manage to bargain with him. Zeus nods his head reluctantly and the rest of the gods murmur in assent._

 _Artemis changes back to my height and pulls me behind her throne, giving me a big hug. She presses a necklace into my hand, it has a seashell pendants in the middle and two slightly smaller pearl pendants on either side, "It is from your sister Zoë, the pearls turn into hunting knives and the seashell turns into a bow. I am sorry I could not do more for you. Zeus is too paranoid about people trying to overthrow him."_

 _"It's okay Artemis, thank you for giving me the necklace."_

 _She nods. "Stay safe."_

 _Zeus calls me over. "For suspicion of trying to overthrow the gods, the Olympian Council hereby sentences you to eternal banishment. We will shall also remove your memories to prevent this from happening again."_

 _Zeus throws his master bolt at me and I black out._

Next, various images flood through my brain, restoring my memories. Artemis, Zoë and I on a hunt. Spying on Kronos. Talking with Hestia.

Soon the memories come to a stop and I slowly wake up. _Oh my gods, I'm a demi-titan._ That's what Annabeth meant before when she called me the banished daughter of Atlas. Her information was accurate but I was unable to realise it before. I wonder how much she knows about me.

From the lighting and the sun's position I guess that it's around 8:00. I brush my hair up into a ponytail and go outside to see all the demigods still asleep. Leo, snoring loudly. Rolling my eyes, I start to prepare breakfast. I travel to the Grove and collect some wild strawberries and climb a tree to get eight apples.

When I return everyone is still asleep. I wash the strawberries then kick Leo in the ribs. "Get up and wake the others."

They hadn't bandaged his arm so there was a long line of dried smeared blood on his arm.

Leo grumbles a bit before he opens his eyes and remembers where he is. He obediently wakes everyone else up and I throw them all an apple and hand out the strawberries. "Breakfast."

They huddle together and talk quietly among themselves while I lean against the wall, savoring the flavor of my apple.

Soon Jason turns around and faces me. "Is what Annabeth said true? Did you betray the gods?"

"I didn't betray them! I spied for them before Zeus decided I was too powerful and tried to kill me!" I burst out.

"But according to mythology-" Annabeth starts, but I cut her off, waving my hand in the air dismissively. "Zeus would've made sure no one knew the real story."

Annabeth opens her mouth to argue but Piper cuts her off with a even glare. "I believe her Annabeth, and I'm sorry I tried to charmspeak you," she addressed the last part to me and I nod my head.

"Would it be alright if we could see your battle skills?" Percy asked politely.

I nod, smirking on the inside. "Sure, who's your best fighter?"

Percy and Jason look at each other before Jason gestures for Percy to move forward. "All yours, mate."

Percy brings out a pen, he uncaps it and it turns into a bronze sword. Percy examines my face for surprise and is noticeably taken back when he sees none.

I summon my knives and Jason counts us in. "Three, two, one. Go!"

Percy charges towards me, going on the offensive. I draw my bow and fire an arrow into his sword arm. Percy grunts in pain, pauses to wrench the arrow out and switches sword arms. Percy approaches me more warily this time, visible relief showing when my bow disappears from my hands.

I twirl my knives and gesture him forward. He charges again and we begin a deadly dance. I spin away from his downward strike towards my shoulder and jump over his sweeping leg. I parry his slash to my side but send no strike of my own. As I let him slowly back me up towards a large rock, I study his technique.

Percy is definitely an excellent swordsman but he seems reluctant to harm me. So the next time Percy slashes towards my neck, instead of dodging I stand still and drop one of my knives, making him hesitate. I take advantage of his momentary distraction and grab his sword arm and twist his wrist hard, spraining it and making him drop his sword into my waiting hand. I bring a knife to his throat and his sword to the back of his neck. "Yield?"

He nods, breathing heavily. "I yield."

I wave Leo over as I start healing Percy's wrist and shoulder. An audible 'pop' is heard from Percy's arm and he flinches. Once I've finished healing Percy, I quickly heal Leo's cut on his arm.

I pick up Percy's sword and examine it. The craftsmanship is familiar and I recognize the handwriting the engraving is in.

"Who made this sword Percy?" I ask carefully.

His eyes sadden, "Zoë Nightshade, a friend of mine."

I nearly drop the sword in surprise. "You know my sister?! How is she?"

Percy and Annabeth exchange a pained look and Percy says, "Calypso. Zoë's dead," then as an afterthought he adds, "and its all my fault."

 **-SAW**


	4. Chapter 4

**Calypso**

I am frozen in shock. I'm vaguely aware of Annabeth yelling at Percy but it fades to a distant humming in my ears. I sit down on a large rock and everything comes back into focus.

"-wasn't your fault, it was fate! She knew what she was doing and made her own choices!" Annabeth yells at Percy.

"Percy, was it you that killed her?" I say quietly.

"Well, no, bu-", "Then it wasn't your fault. Zoë is a smart person and she wouldn't have died for no reason. Zoë actually made my weapons too, she was an expert in weapon making and enchanting."

Percy smiles softly and I know I have gotten through to him.

"How did she die?" I question.

"We were on a quest to save Artemis and Annabeth. I was fighting your father, Atlas. He was about to kill me when Zoë saved me, in doing so, she put herself in a dangerous position and Atlas knocked her into a wall. She lives among the stars now."

"Good, Zoë always loved the stars, she deserves to reside among them. How is Artemis?" I ask.

"She's doing okay. My cousin, Thalia, joined the hunt a few years ago, she's the new lieutenant in Zoé's place."

"Tell me about the war," I press on.

Percy nods and launches into a long story. "So when I was twelve, I found out that I was a demigod. Apparently there was a big prophecy that said that a child of the big three would have to power to destroy or save Olympus. The first big three kid that they found out about was a daughter of Zeus called Thalia. She was a runaway along with a boy called Luke and Annabeth, here. But outside of camp, an army of monsters caught up to them and she sacrificed herself to save Luke and Annabeth. As she was dying, Zeus turned her into a pine tree to keep her out of Hades' hands. So when they found out that I was a son of Poseidon, it didn't go down too well."

"I went on my first quest to find Zeus' lightning bolt with my friend, Grover and Annabeth. Zeus had unfairly accused me of stealing his bolt and said I had to return it by a certain time. I returned it and we found out that our friend, Luke, was working for Kronos. "

"The next year I when I went back to camp, Thalia's tree had been poisoned. Annabeth, me and my new brother, Tyson snuck away to find the Golden Fleece. Annabeth believed it would save Thalia's tree. We sailed the sea of monsters and made it to Polyphemus' island. We got the fleece and saved two of our friends that were stuck there. When we got back to camp, the fleece worked as expected and began to heal Thalia's tree. But the power of the fleece was too much and it revived Thalia."

"When I was thirteen, I was sent- well I snuck onto a quest to save Artemis and Annabeth, who had both been kidnapped by your father, Atlas. We saved her, but with the loss of two important people. Zoë Nightshade and Bianca Di Angelo. To fill in for Zoë and as to not be the prophecy child, Thalia joined the hunt as the new lieutenant."

"At fourteen, I was put on a quest to go into the labyrinth and find Daedalus. We made our way through we the help of a clear-sighted mortal called Rachel Dare. We found out that Kronos had taken over the body of Luke and he was invincible. After the quest, an army attacked camp through the labyrinth and Daedalus sacrificed himself to collapse the maze."

"A few days before my birthday, Kronos' army was attacking. I found out the mysterious prophecy."

 _'A half-blood of the eldest gods_

 _Shall reach sixteen against all odds_

 _Shall see the world in endless sleep_

 _The heroes soul, cursed blade shall reap_

 _A single choice will end his days_

 _Olympus to preserve or raze.'_

"In order to match Kronos, I bathed in the Styx. We fended off Kronos' army for a few days and many important people died. On my birthday, Kronos got through our defences and made it to Olympus. Annabeth, Grover, Thalia and I followed him. After a long battle, Annabeth managed to get Luke to take control long enough for him to stab himself in his Achilles Heel, saving the gods. Luke was the true hero of that war."

"Afterwards, Chiron told the surviving cabin leaders about the Romans, and how while we defended Olympus; they attacked Mount Othrys," Percy finishes.

I look to Jason and he nods. "It's what Percy said, while the Greeks defended Olympus; Reyna, the other praetor and I lead the Romans into battle at Mount Othrys. I killed Krios and toppled Kronos's throne. At the time we believed that that had lead to his defeat. Afterwards, Lupa told the praetors about the Greeks and how while we stormed Mount Orthys, they defended Olympus."

"During the first Titan war I worked with the gods, spying on Kronos," I start, carefully assessing their faces. "In the final battle I was able to kill most the Titans and was about to kill Kronos before Zeus stepped in and cut him up. When the war was over, Zeus became worried that I would try to dethrone him and he banished me. Before I was cast here, Artemis gave me my necklace. Zoë made it too, the pearls turn into hunting knives and the seashell turns into a bow. I have been stuck here since."

The demigods have been silent during my explanation but Percy suddenly breaks the silence by yelling out, "Dad!?"

"Shouldn't be possible," I mutter.

Poseidon smiles genuinely at me. "Calypso. Hestia, Artemis and I have missed you greatly."

Poseidon and I had been friends but we weren't as close as I was with Artemis and Hestia. Even so, Poseidon had stood up for me during the council meeting in which I was banished.

Poseidon continues speaking, "I'm here because of a prophecy."

"Well," Leo grumbles. "That's never good."

Poseidon's eyes twinkle with amusement before he continues.

 _"The banished and the gifted of fire,_

 _The son of the sky and the daughter of desire,_

 _The daughter of ores and the son of war,_

 _The boy of the sea and girl of strategy,_

 _The gods must defy an ancient law,_

 _The city must sleep again once more,_

 _Only with the help of the hearth,_

 _Shall they defeat Mother Earth."_

"I am afraid you must find your own way off Ogygia due to Zeus. He forbade me to contact you so I'd advise you stay out of his sight for now. When you get back you must unite the Greek and Roman camps. Good luck! One last thing Calypso, the drawing is the key," Poseidon finishes mysteriously.

I raise my hand to swipe through the Iris message. "Thank you Poseidon. We will find a way to get off this island and help defeat Gaia."

Judging from the gasps when I said 'Gaia' no one else had figured out the prophecy to that extent. Once again, I'm stuck with a bunch of idiots. I can practically see the cogs turning in Annabeth's head from my words until she gives a sharp intake of breath. I know Annabeth has worked it out.

"It's like last time isn't it?" Annabeth asks shakily while everyone else looks confused.

I nod and she sinks down onto the rock next to me. Percy throws up his hands in exasperation. "I give up. What in Hades are you two talking about!?"

Annabeth answers, staring blankly at the ground. "Do you remember what happened after the first Titan War?"

Percy shakes his head and Annabeth mutters, "Seaweed Brain."

"After the first Titan War the Giants rose. Each one is meant to oppose an Olympian. Like Polybotes is meant to oppose Poseidon and Alcyoneus for Hades. The giants are the eldest children of Gaia and they can only be defeated by a demigod and a god working together. This time will be worse. As Poseidon just warned us, Gaia is waking."

There is silence after Annabeth's explanation and I can see the fear on everyone's faces. "I thought the gods can't fight our battles for us?" Piper says quizzically.

"They will have to. Remember, _the gods must defy an ancient law_ ," Annabeth replies.

Actually, by the Ancient Laws, the gods are allowed to fight beside us against Giants and other beings of the same strength, but I decide not to correct Annabeth, figuring I can use this to my advantage.

"We should go over the prophecy," Annabeth says decidedly.

"The banished is Calypso, the son of the sky is Jason, the daughter of desire is Piper, the boy of the sea is Percy and the girl of strategy is obviously me," Annabeth says in one breath. Turning to Leo she continues, "That means you're the gifted of fire."

With everyone staring at him, Leo shifts uncomfortably. I glare at him and answer Annabeth's unspoken question. "He has the gift of fire, inherited from his father. Only one in a hundred children of Hephaestus can get it, and _only_ the strongest."

Piper looks at Leo in part amazement and part anger. "Why didn't you tell us? And why did _she_ know before us?"

Since Leo is still staring at the ground I answer again for him. "I know because he tried to set me on fire when we first met and I had him at knife-point. I wasn't affected because Hestia blessed Zoë and I when we were young. In a way she is my patron but we are more so friends."

" _Only with the help of the hearth, shall they defeat Mother Earth_ ," Annabeth murmurs, her eyes widening.

I smile approvingly at Annabeth. "Good thinking Annabeth! That just leaves one line of the prophecy to solve. _The city must sleep again once more_. Any ideas?"

Annabeth is quick to answer. "I think it's referring to the titan war in Manhattan. The whole city was put to sleep, maybe they're trying the same move. What did Poseidon mean by 'the drawing is the key'?"

I jump up and walk calmly into my room. Pulling open a draw I bring out an old drawing, folded neatly. I open it and start walking back outside.

The drawing is poor and probably done by a three-year-old but you could tell what it was. In the picture, a ship is hovering in the sky, there aren't many details but at the prow is a dragons head.

Upon my arrival Leo takes the drawing from me with shaky hands. "I lost this drawing when I was younger. It was from a dream I had."

"Well," Piper says snatching the drawing from Leo. "That dream is about to become a reality. This ship is probably what we need to get off this island. The question is, where do we get the supplies?"

No sooner had she said this, a huge stack of wood and celestial bronze appeared with a small note. It reads in a fancy calligraphy 'From Poseidon.'

"Percy," Leo says, impressed. "Your dad is awesome."

"Alright!" Annabeth yells, clapping her hands. "Let's get to work!"

 **-SAW**


	5. Chapter 5

When we started building 'The _Argo II_ ' (Leo insisted on the name), I think only Leo, Annabeth and I truly understood how it worked. It tales us two weeks but eventually we have a fully functioning war ship with a bronze dragon's head at the prow.

The dragon head took a lot of my magic and a week of our time spent working on the ship, but we finally got the dragon's head to come to life. 'Festus' (another one of Leo's names) is able to communicate with Leo and I through morse code. I personally think Festus is smarter than Leo, but Leo denies it every time I bring it up.

"I'm going to gather food for the trip," I announce, washing my hands in a stream. "How much do you think we need?"

Annabeth lists off the food we will need.

"Okay," I say. "I'll probably be out for the day so we should leave at sunset."

They all agree and I take off, leaping through the trees with the grace of a huntress.

* * *

It's midday when Artemis appears. A silver arrow pierces the eye of the rabbit I had been following to it's home. It falls to the ground, dead.

I turn and beam at Artemis, immediately running to hug her. I pull back with a slight smirk. "That was quite the entrance. I see you are taking after your father."

Artemis scowls. "That is actually why I am here. The pig-headed fool has found out about your plans to leave Ogygia. Zeus is furious and has forbidden any Olympians to assist the quest. Poseidon, Hestia, Hades, Hephaestus, Apollo, Athena and I will still do whatever we can to help you. It was Athena's idea to gather you all here."

"We will have to depend on Hades and Hestia a lot, they are the only ones not being monitored. Be sure to steer clear of Zeus at all costs. The first place to go is the camps. Half of you will be sent on a Roman quest and half will be on a Greek quest."

I know that Artemis has to go back soon so I step back. "Tell Hephaestus thank you for his help with the _Argo II_."

Artemis smirks. "I told them you'd be the one to figure it out."

Artemis flashes away, leaving me alone in the forest.

* * *

When I come back the sun is going down. We all load ourselves onto the ship and Percy pushes us out to sea. The _Argo II_ has nins cabins in total. We all had the chance to design our own rooms so I've enchanted mine to look like Ogygia. I lay down on my bed to sleep.

"Wow," Annabeth whispers, coming into my room. "It's beautiful."

I sit up, "Thanks," I say coolly. "Why are you here?"

Annabeth sits down next to me. "I just want to make sure we can rely on you. We're taking a big step inviting a demi-titan on our quest."

"You mean you don't trust me!" I say, furious.

Annabeth looks scared and tries to back peddle. "No, but-"

I cut her off by stalking out the room. _Well, that escalated beyond quickly._

I storm to the deck and almost knock Leo over in my anger. "Whoa," Leo says catching up to me. "What's gotten you so cheerful?"

I walk faster but Leo matches my pace. "I'm not in the mood Valdez," I say, emphasizing this with a pointed glare. "Go away."

I don't know where I am going. If I was on Ogygia I would vent my anger with a fast-paced hunt or simply cry it out. But I'm on a flying ship in the middle of nowhere. There's nowhere to run and I refuse to show weakness after what Annabeth has just said to me.

I find myself in the crows nest and am soon joined by Leo. He doesn't say anything, just leans against the railing next to me, our shoulders brushing. I focus my gaze on the setting sun, just enjoying the feeling of Leo so close to me.

I mentally shake my head, I will not think of him in that way. There is no place for love in a war despite what Aphrodite may argue.

Wait a second, did I say love? This is not love. Love has to go both ways, since neither of us like each other in that way this isn't love. Or do I like him?

For goodness sake, I just met the boy! I should just forget I ever thought about this and focus on making sure that he isn't an axe-murderer.

I am saved from my internal argument by Leo clearing his throat. The sun has completely set now. We have been here longer than I thought.

Leo looks at me expectantly. I sigh. "Annabeth doesn't trust me."

Leo's eyes darken nearly unnoticeably. "Annabeth? Wow, for a daughter of the goddess of wisdom she isn't that smart."

Annabeth will skin him alive if she hears him.

As if he heard my thoughts Leo quickly adds, "Don't tell her I said that!" His eyes dart around in fake fear but he really does cringe when we both hear thunder in the distance. I guess Athena doesn't like her daughter being demoted like that.

I laugh at him. I know he is trying to lighten the mood for my sake and it surprisingly works. "Idiot," I say, nudging him gently.

Leo grins back at me and gives a mock bow. "My specialty."

We sit down on the floor, leaning against the railing. For a while we just talk about small things until we finally doze off.

When we wake up my head is on Leo's shoulder and Percy is standing over us, scowling. "You two are so dead."

 **-SAW**


	6. Chapter 6

Percy paces back and forth in front of us. "-You had us all worried sick!-"

"Yeah," I interrupt sarcastically, looking directly at Annabeth. "I'm sure you were _all_ worried."

Annabeth pales slightly under everyone's stares.

"Alright," Jason says, glaring. "What did you Greeks do?"

I smirk at Jason from my spot, sitting on a table. " _Chase_ doesn't trust me because I'm a demi-titan."

I'm amused and slightly touched by how much they care. The uproar is instant, Jason and Frank are yelling at Annabeth while the others just look at her in disgust. I feel slightly sorry for Annabeth but Percy calms everyone down.

Annabeth addresses us all but her eyes plead with me when she speaks. "Look. I'm sorry, I just didn't want another betrayal like Luke." Her voice breaks slightly at the end and Percy envelopes her with a hug.

Luke was the guy that Percy had told me about. He was Kronos' host and Annabeth's former crush.

I smile at Annabeth. "Apology accepted."

Now that the tension is gone we move onto more serious matters. "How are we going to heal the rift between the Greeks and Romans?" Jason says.

"I actually have an idea," I speak up. "Artemis contacted me before, she said both camps were soon going to issue a quest. We send the Greek leaders; Annabeth and Percy and two Romans; Hazel and Frank on the Roman quest. And we send the Roman leader; Jason and two Greeks; Piper and Leo on the greek quest. This way the leaders of each camp can prove themselves."

Most of them are nodding along to my idea. Annabeth has her eyebrows scrunched up in concentration. "I assume you'll go to the Greek camp?"

I nod. "It's not as strict as Camp Jupiter. I probably shouldn't go onto campus though. I'll wait outside and join you when you leave. Jason, tell them that I'm on the quest too."

"Um, slight problem," Leo speaks up nervously. "I've set course for Camp Jupiter. How are we getting to Camp Half-Blood?"

I smile inwardly at his nervousness. "I can teleport us there. I'll be very tired and I'll probably be out for a couple hours. Annabeth can take the ship to Camp Jupiter."

"Hold up," Piper says, frowning slightly. "You never said you could teleport. That could've saved us making the whole ship."

I scowl slightly at her obliviousness. "Did you not hear the part where I get very tired and become unconscious? Also if I teleport too much without a break I will most likely die."

Silence follows my words until Jason claps his hands. "Okay. Whoever is on the greek quest needs to go and get whatever they want to bring. We'll meet back here in an hour."

Jason walks out, closely followed by Piper.

I go to my room and pack a small, bottomless backpack. I pack a few slices of ambrosia and a flask of nectar. I bring a spare bow and two quivers of arrows just in case. On second thoughts, I also bring a spare dagger.

An hour later we meet in the deck. Leo does a double take when he sees my bag. "How did you fit everything into that?" He asks incredulously.

I roll my eyes at him. "I've enchanted it. It can fit anything. It's basically a bottomless bag."

Leo looks amazed but before he can try fitting Festus in, Jason hastily cuts him off. "Let's go. Calypso can you teleport us?"

I nod and everyone grabs hands. I ignore the tingles that go through me when Leo cautiously takes my hand. "Remember, I will most likely pass out. Just dump my body in a bush or something and you'll be fine."

They all look at me in horror and I laugh and close my eyes, focusing on their description of Camp Half-Blood. I can feel my feet leave the ground and when I feel the earth beneath me again my knees buckle. I'm unconscious by the time my body hits the ground.

 **Leo**

When Calypso wakes up at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill, I am dabbing her forehead with a wet cloth. Calypso pushes my hand away and sits up.

"What are you doing?" Calypso croaks weakly.

I push Calypso back down. "You've been unconscious for three hours. Jason and Piper left to get the prophecy. I offered to stay with you, as oppose to dumping you in a bush."

That last sentence was teasingly made and Calypso smiles. "When are they coming back?"

I check my wrist and peer at my non-existent watch. "Well, they left three hours ago and they Iris messaged me in five hours. So they should be back about-" I grin at her, "Ten hours from now!"

Calypso rolls her eyes. "I pity your maths teacher."

"I think my maths teacher may have committed suicide. That's better than Percy though, apparently he killed his pre-algebra teacher."

Calypso bears no awkwardness around me for what happened last night. _No, nothing happened last night_ , I chide myself. _Bad Leo. She just fell asleep._

In all honesty, I hadn't fallen asleep at the same time as Calypso. When she had put her head on my shoulder in her sleep, I had been shocked. Then I had realised it was just a subconscious movement.

Calypso had looked so beautiful under the moonlight. Her hair had practically glowed and her face had become softer, less burdened. I hadn't realised how much pressure we had put on her until that night. We depended on her to guide us through the quest. She is the one who gave Festus life. She provided us with food and supplies. We've all but ransacked her island and home.

"Leo?" Calypso asks gently. I hadn't realised I had zoned out.

I grin at her as to reassure her that I'm still alive.

Calypso smiles beautifully at me. "I think Jason and Piper are back." Calypso's smile changes into a cute frown. "And they brought company."

 **-SAW**


	7. Chapter 7

**Calypso**

I squint against the sun, trying to make out who is with Piper and Jason. I sit up as I make out the large silhouette. "Chiron?"

They walk to the other side of me so I don't have to squint. I stand up and give Chiron a hug, which is rather hard due to him being a centaur. "I haven't seen you in ages! How are you?"

Chiron smiles at me warmly. "Calypso. I've been wonderful. It's been rather quiet without you, though recently I have had Perseus to fill your place." His expression turns serious. "How is it that you are off your island?"

I grin at him. "Don't worry, I'm here for a reason. The giants are rising and a prophecy has been issued, I'm in it. I'm actually the key of winning the war. Did Jason fill you in?"

Chiron nods gravely. "It's dangerous for the demigods to unite like this but if we don't, I fear we will be destroyed. Hera has been captured and Jason has been given the prophecy, I just came to see you off."

I nod and turn to Jason. "The prophecy?"

 _"Child of lightning, beware the earth_

 _The Giants revenge the seven shall birth_

 _The forge and isle shall break the cage_

 _And death unleash through Hera's rage"_

The prophecy flows easily through Jason's mouth and I get the feeling this isn't his first quest.

"Alright," I say. "Everyone grab hands. We're going to the Wolf House."

Recognition flickers in Jason's eyes. "That's a sacred place of the Romans. I've been there before."

Chiron smiles at me. "I knew you would be the first to figure it out."

"Where better to hold a goddess hostage?" I finish for him.

"Everyone, grab hands," I repeat.

Leo starts to protest. "You said if you teleport too much you might die!"

"What do you suggest? We walk?" I snap. I know he's trying to look after me but we've got to be realistic.

Leo grabs my hand without any grumbling after that and I grin at Chiron before focusing on as far as I can go west.

The world spins and I fall towards an dusty, old warehouse floor. Before I hit the ground, warm arms wrap around me and I fall unconscious.

* * *

 **Leo**

Keeping my eyes open during the teleportation is definitely a bad idea. When we land again I only just catch Calypso before she hits her head on the floor. I blink away the dots and set Calypso gently on the ground.

We seem to be in an old warehouse. Various machines are around the room and by taking one look at them, I can tell there's no hope for most of them to be repaired.

I spot a dusty old couch a few metres away. Lifting Calypso up bridal style, I set her down on the couch.

"Where are we?" Piper wonders.

I scratch my head. "I dunno. I think it might've been Santa's workshop, but like, abandoned."

I crouch in front of a small table. I can sense the mechanics in it. I stick my head underneath it, I can see a bunch of complicated mechanisms. "Cool," I mumble to myself.

"Hey, Leo? Piper and I are just going to check upstairs, see if we can find anything to help us," Jason says.

"Uh huh," I say, still examining the table. "You do that."

I hear their footsteps gradually fade away. "Found it!" I announce to the air, flicking a switch under the table. I lean out from under the table and stand up, backing away a few steps.

Like magic, the table creaks to life. It seems to stretch out it's (table) legs, then walks up to me. "Awesome!" I mutter.

"I'm gonna name you Buford!" I say, grinning crazily.

The table creaks in agreement. Behind me, Calypso groans. I hurry over to her, completely forgetting about Buford.

Calypso's eyes flicker open and she groans again. "Leo?"

My heart beats quickly and I kneel down to her level. "Right here," I say.

I grab a bottle from my belt and hand it to her. "Here, drink this."

Calypso sits up slowly and takes the offered water. She gulps it down quickly. "Thanks."

"Where's Jason and Piper?" Calypso asks.

I scratch the back of my head. "They went upstairs to see if they could salvage anything."

A creak comes from above us and Calypso sits up suddenly, her eyes sparkling with anger. "You let them go! You idiot!"

Calypso takes in the surrounding area and another long creak is heard from upstairs. "This is a cyclops' lair! They're probably about to be cooked!"

Calypso takes a few deep breaths, calming herself. "We need to go and find them. Now!"

A longer creak is heard, like someone going down the stairs. Calypso grabs me and pulls me behind a random machine. Just in time, too. A cyclops appears at the door to the stairs. A male one, I'd assume.

 _Wow_ , I mouth to myself. As a new demigod, I don't have much experience with the different monsters.

The cyclops looks around once, then walks back up the stairs.

When Calypso is sure it's safe, she drags me out from our hiding spot. "That wasn't the leader. No cyclops leader is that careless. Let's go rescue Jason and Piper."

You just can't argue with the girl. I follow Calypso to the base of the stairs, she holds up a hand. "Wait, I can turn us temporarily invisible, but only until we're up there. It's a complicated spell and I can only hold it for a short amount of time," Calypso whispers.

I nod in assent and she mutters something in Ancient Greek. A strange sensation goes through me. When I look down I can still see myself but I'm transparent. It's like looking at a ghost. _I wonder if I can walk through walls._

As if reading my mind, Calypso hisses, "No! You cannot walk through walls, so don't even try!"

My face falls slightly, but Calypso grabs my hand, sending tingles through my body. "Come on!" Calypso whispers, "Before it runs out!"

I stumble up the stairs, in Calypso's graceful footsteps. We run behind another machine and we turn visible. The dark room is lit only by the fire in the centre of the room.

The fire that Jason and Piper are currently hanging over.

 **-SAW**


	8. Chapter 8

**Leo**

"How good are you at fighting?" Calypso hisses at me.

I peer around the machine at Jason and Piper. Jason seems to be unconscious, he's bleeding from a cut on his forehead. Piper seems fairly alert though. They're hanging from a crane's chain.

There are three cyclopes sitting around the fire. One female and two males. One male is wearing a toga while the other is wearing only a loincloth. The female seems to be the mother by the way she treats the other two cyclopses.

"Excuse me," Piper says to the cyclopes. "You should let us go."

Her words were straightforward, polite and full of charmspeak. It seems to have worked though. Loincloth scratches his head. "Maybe we should let her go, Ma."

"Yeah, Ma," Toga echoes.

"Idiots," the female growls. "She is charmspeaking you, you buffoons! Alas, no one can trick the great Ma Gasket!"

I zone out as I scan the room for anything that can give us an advantage. There's a bulldozer next to Toga with a completely smashed window and a crushed roof. The room is filled with various crates and machines. Right next to the cyclopes' campfire is a row of cranes, one of them holds an engine block in the my opposite direction, away from the stairs.

"-Can we save her until last?" Loincloth is saying as I look back to the three cyclopes.

Ma Gasket hits him on the head, sending him stumbling backwards. "No, you pathetic excuse for a cyclops! Gag the girl."

Calypso snaps her fingers in my face, jolting me back to her. "Well?"

"What?" I say, caught off guard.

Calypso rolls her eyes. "I _said_ , how good are you at fighting?!"

"I'm decent with a dagger, but not enough to take on a fully-grown cyclops!"

Calypso ignores the second part of my sentence. "Perfect! I'll lead the two male cyclopes downstairs and you get the female."

"No-" I hiss but Calypso disappears, leaving me alone, well, partially.

I hear the stairs creak loudly as she walks down them. I instinctively cringe in worry but then I realise that that's her intent. It's seems to have worked too, alerting the cyclopes.

"Go see what that was!" Ma Gasket growls at her sons.

"Yes, Ma," Loincloth grumbles.

She distastefully watches them leave the room. "Idiots." I guess that Ma Gasket is one of those mothers that you can never impress. I've had my fair share of foster parents that were like that. Not fun. At all.

I dart to a crate that is further away from the stairs. I peek out from the crate to see if the cyclops noticed. Ma Gasket doesn't notice me but Piper does and to be honest, I find both females equally terrifying. You try waking up Piper in the morning. I'm pretty sure I still have dagger marks on my chest.

Back to the subject, Piper's eyes widen and I can guarantee she would've gasped if she wasn't newly gagged. Thankfully she's unable to give me away.

A loud crash comes from downstairs and I internally wince. There's no way Ma Gasket didn't hear that.

Sure enough, when I peek around the crate, she is starting to get up. Her expression is not one of worry for her sons, it's annoyance. What. A great. Mother.

I know I can't let Ma Gasket go downstairs, Calypso is expecting me to deal with her. The slight problem, I may be decent with a dagger, but I may have neglected to mention that I forgot mine.

I step out from my hiding spot as Ma Gasket turns around. I chuck a screwdriver from my belt at her head. "Hey!"

 _Here goes nothing._

Ma Gasket barely seems to notice the screwdriver, but she does hear my shout. She turns back and leers at me. "Well, well, well. What have we got here? Another little demigod to add to the fire?"

Behind her Piper is desperately signaling for me to run. My eyes fix on the engine block that's held suspended in the air by the crane. A plan forms in my head. A stupid plan, but from what I've heard from Percy, that's the best kind of plan. Of course Annabeth had slapped him after he'd said that, but that's beside the point.

"No," I say, and I'm amazed my voice isn't shaking. "Take one step closer and I'll destroy you!"

This only seems to amuse Ma Gasket. She rips off the arm of one of the cranes and I cringe internally. That was way too close to the one I'm focused on.

I grab a weapon from my tool belt, I look down, it's a pocketknife. Ma Gasket laughs. "You think that little toothpick will kill me?"

I curse under my breath and drop the knife, facing Ma Gasket weaponless. It's alright, though. My plan has a fifty percent chance of working. That's the best percentage you can hope for as a demigod. Right?

Ma Gasket takes another step forward, putting her exactly where I want her to be. "Any final words, demigod?"

I feel eyes on the back of me but I stay focused on Ma Gasket, she's my main worry right now. In answer I send a controlled burst of fire towards the chain holding up the engine, aiming for the weakest link.

"Yes," I tell Ma Gasket. "Look up."

As the fire draws closer to the chain in slow motion, it occurs to me that I haven't gotten my eyes checked in ages and I might completely miss the link.

But the engine falls silently downwards and turns Ma Gasket into dust. That was my first kill on an actual monster. "Yes!" I yell, punching the air.

I feel suddenly dizzy from using my powers and I stumble forward slightly. That's when I remember the pair of eyes I felt behind me and I spin around dizzily.

I'm rewarded by a metal flask to the face. I stumble backwards and nearly completely fall over. I pick up the flask from the floor and glare at it's sender. "Ow, Calypso! That hurt!"

Calypso merely grins innocently at me. That girl is going to be the death of me, I swear.

"Were you there the whole time?! You could've helped me!"

Calypso shrugs. "It was your fight."

Calypso sends a torrent of fire at Ma Gasket's remains. She notices my look of surprise. "The two cyclopes downstairs tried to reform somehow. They can't reform if there's nothing to reform from."

I nod. "Makes sense."

"Good. Now drink."

I uncap the flask and peer inside it. Nectar. Clearly my still-present dizziness hadn't gone unnoticed. I took two quick swigs before _handing_ it back to Calypso.

A muffled noise startles us. I look over to see Piper still gagged, next to an unconscious Jason. "Oops," I mutter, rushing to help them.

I touch the crane and sense the mechanisms in it. Using my Hephaestus powers, I get the crane to move so that Jason and Piper are no longer hanging over the fire.

Calypso somehow cuts Piper free by throwing her knives so they just miss her but sever the rope. Piper falls a few metres to the ground and does a roll to take the impact of the fall.

Calypso frees Jason next. As he free-falls to the ground he suddenly slows down and lands gently on the ground. I look over to see Calypso, with her eyebrows creased in concentration.

The annoying thing is, I probably could've built something to get them both down, but Calypso just has to step in and steal my thunder.

* * *

 **Calypso**

We use the rest of our nectar to heal Jason but he still won't wake up. After waiting for a bit I find a very effective method of waking him, by slapping Jason in the face.

He shoots up like a bullet. "Ow!"

Jason glares at me, we all know I'm the only one who would do that. I shrug at him. "You wouldn't wake up. It was that or let Leo set you on fire."

Jason stands up and shoulders his backpack. "We should get going. We'll go on foot for a while, let you recover some strength."

I don't argue and we set off north, through the woods. It mayn't seem like it, but every bit of land we cover by foot, saves me some energy. Leo fills Jason in while we're walking, exaggerating his helpfulness in battle.

I cut in. "Actually, I defeated two of the cyclopes while he killed the female. He also forgot to get you both down and untied."

Jason and Piper snicker and Leo pouts at me. "You make it sound like all I did was kill a weak, little girl. To be fair, she was the toughest one."

I nod my consent and he grins in triumph, like I've made his entire day.

That's when I notice the flickers of silver in the trees. As a precaution I summon my bow and hold it loosely in faux carelessness.

One can never be too sure around the Hunters of Artemis.

 **-SAW**


	9. Chapter 9

**Piper**

Unlike the boys, I notice that Calypso has grabbed her bow and my own hand drifts casually to grip my dagger. That's when I see the flashes of silver around us. I may be new to this whole demigod thing, but even Leo can figure out that this is the Hunters of Artemis.

In a casual, friendly gesture, I grab Jason's arm, ignoring my quickening heartbeat. I dig my fingernails into the inside of his arm, he cringes for a millisecond before clearing his face. That's one of the things I like about Jason, he catches on quickly.

I let go of his arm and he stuffs his hands in his pockets, I know that he is gripping his coin tightly.

As oppose to Jason, Leo has no subtlety so I won't even attempt to alert him. But before I can stop him, Jason whispers something in Leo's ear.

Leo's reactions are quick, I'll give him that, but in this case it nearly kills us. Leo's head snaps up and his eyes scan the area, immediately noticing the silver uniforms.

It happens very fast after that. Arrows come flying towards us from all sides, but just as quickly, Calypso throws a shield over us all. The arrows collide with her shield and she grunts, her arms thrown out to hold the shield placed over us.

The arrows continue and with every group of arrows, Calypso sinks further and further down to her knees. I don't know what to do but thankfully Leo breaks off a piece of ambrosia and pops it in her mouth. Calypso's face turns regains some of its colour and I sigh in relief.

"Stop!" I hear a voice from outside yell. Calypso lets down the shield and stands back up, taking the rest of the ambrosia but she looks ready to throw another shield up should she need to.

A girl pushes to the front of the gathered huntresses. "Calypso?"

* * *

 **Calypso**

As soon as Phoebe pushes to the front, I let my bow disappear and run to hug her. "Phoebe!"

I let go of her and turn to another familier huntress. I embrace her quickly. "Atalanta!"

I step back, smiling. "It's been so long."

"Where's Artemis?"

Phoebe's face falls slightly. "She has been called back to Olympus against her will. Zeus demanded it."

Thunder rumbles in the distance but we both ignore it. "It's probably because Hera was kidnapped. We're actually on a quest to save her now. I believe her to be in the Wolf House, the sacred place of the Romans."

Phoebe frowns. "That's bad news. I suppose Zeus would like to keep an eye on the goddesses after that."

"I never knew you were the lieutenant!" I exclaim, referring to the fact that she is acting like the Hunters' leader.

Phoebe's face completely falls now. "I'm not, Thalia Grace is."

There can only be two answers to my question but I ask it anyway. "Where is she?"

A new voice answers, a male one. "Thalia Grace is currently in the hands of Enceladus."

Lycan smiles at me from in front of his pack, "Hello there, Calypso."

* * *

I keep my eyes on Lycan as I shuffle through my backpack. I grab my spare silver dagger and drop my bag to the ground. I back up to my friends and send a clear message to Phoebe with my eyes. _Keep him distracted._

I give my dagger to Leo and Jason and Piper each get one of my knives, leaving me with only my bow. "They can only be harmed by silver," I remind them when they look at me in surprise.

Lycan is on our right and the hunters' left. He definitely saw me move but he's engaged in a conversation with Phoebe. I only manage to catch Phoebe's final word. "Charge!"

I immediately peg Lycan in the eye with an arrow as he goes for Phoebe before I find some other targets.

A medium sized wolf lunges at my head and I neatly spin, grabbing an arrow from a hunter's quiver and I jam it into the wolf's eye. It disintegrates and I send a short burst of fire at it's pile of dust.

"Leo!" I yell, over the battle. "Make sure you set fire to the remains of any wolves that you see!"

"On it!" Leo yells back.

Leo is very hot at the moment. Wait! Not in _that_ way! His hair and hands are on fire, as well as my silver dagger. It's a good thing I fireproofed all of my weapons, then.

My moment of distraction nearly gets me killed. Thank the gods Leo sees it happening. His- no _my_ dagger goes flying through the air and digs into a wolf that had been sneaking up on me. I grab the dagger and send it hurtling back towards Leo, hitting his own wolf that is trying to sneak up on him.

Leo and I exchange a quick grateful smile before returning to the fight. It seems that Leo's flaming dagger is keeping his monsters from reforming so I will all of my arrows to be set aflame when I let go of my bowstring.

The battle dies down soon and Leo and I set fire to any piles of monster dust we see. "What happened to Lycan?" I ask Phoebe.

Phoebe grimaces. "He ran away when the battle turned in our favour. About a dozen of his wolves escaped with him."

"Any injuries?" I inquire.

"A few scratches here and there. No one was bitten, though."

Sounds good to me. I walk over to Leo, Piper and Jason. "How about you three? Any wounds?"

They shake their heads, no. "Here," Leo says, offering me the silver dagger.

I shake my head. "It's yours now. You're the idiot that didn't bring a weapon on the quest. I've got plenty in my room on the Argo."

"However," I say, turning to Piper and Jason. "I want my knives back from you two. You have your own weapons."

They both give me back my knives and I put them back on my necklace.

"Thanks," Jason says.

"You're welcome," I reply. "Hey Jason? Isn't your last name Grace?" He nods. "That's the surname of the missing lieutenant. Thalia Grace. Do you know her?"

Jason grips his head as if remembering. "I had a sister called Thalia. I thought she died when I was three. Apparently not, though."

Leo claps Jason on the back, cheerily. "Well, you've just gained some not-so-new family! Thank the gods I'm not the only one that has to be related to you!"

This both brightens and confuses Jason. He raises an eyebrow at Leo. "You realise that the gods don't have DNA, right?"

Leo bumps Jason in a friendly manner. "I've adopted you as my brother. I got your back."

Phoebe approaches us warily, sending glares at the boys. She directs her words to Piper and I. "We have narrowed down where Thalia is to Mount Diablo in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area. As the gods cannot help heroes that are not on a quest, we were hoping that you could go after her."

Phoebe clearly doesn't like the idea of leaving their lieutenant's fate to a group containing boys. But that's the way she was raised. One bad experience has lead her to believe that all boys are bad, that's why I didn't join the hunters like Zoé. I have gone with them in many of their hunts though, that's how I met Atalanta and Phoebe.

"We would gladly help Thalia. Do not worry about the boys, Thalia is Jason's sister and he would love to help save her," I say generously. I don't offer any reassurance about Leo because who honestly can?

"Thank you, Calypso." Phoebe hands me two small pieces of fabric. "Here are some supplies to help you. We will travel to the Wolf House ourselves and we will send you an Iris message when we are attacking. Good luck."

* * *

The hunters see us off before nightfall, trying to get rid of us as soon as possible. We are a good twenty metres away before we start talking.

"Well, they were friendly," Leo grumbles. "I didn't even get to ask them for the blueprints for their tents."

I show him a piece of fabric the size of my fingernail. "You don't need the blueprints. Phoebe gave us two tents. One for Piper and I and one for Jason. You can sleep outside."

Leo glares at me playfully. "Dude. I'm fireproof, but that doesn't mean I'm always warm!" He sighs dramatically. "I guess the best people really do die young."

Jason nudges him. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll let you look inside my tent."

We all laugh at Leo expense. That's another thing I really like about Leo, he can take a joke. And we're going to need to keep our spirits up if we're heading off on a suicide mission.

 **-SAW**


	10. Chapter 10

**Calypso**

We walk for a couple hundred metres before setting up camp. We pick a clearing with a river running through it. It reminds me of my home and nostalgia takes hold of me.

I've left the only home I've had for years for some quest to save the gods. Besides a few of them, what have they ever done for me? They banish their own spy for fear that they might try to overthrow them. I was the key to winning the first Titan war and they- no, Zeus threw me out because of a suspicion. I may hold no respect for the king of the gods but I have left him alone and I hoped he would return the favour.

So why have I come on this quest? To prove something to the gods? To get off my island? Maybe a bit of both. And honestly, the demigods had intrigued me. I was curious as to why the fought for the gods. But now I know it's not for the gods that they fight. It's for their family.

"Hey, Calypso!" Leo yells. He pops up next to me. "You know, the hunters didn't give us any food. If you want, I could make some?" Leo phrased his last sentence as a question, and he said it shyly.

I punch him in the arm. "Why so quiet, Valdez? Has something actually made you serious?"

Leo rubs his arm wincing- whether it was in fake pain or not, I'm not quite sure. "Firstly, that hurt, Sunshine. Secondly, nothing can quieten the flaming Valdez!"

His hair catches fire but I am not amused. "What did you just call me?"

Leo's hair puts itself out. "Bye," he squeaks, running away quickly.

"You'd better run Valdez," I mutter under my breath.

I walk to the middle of the clearing near a dead log. I pull out two small pieces of fabric. I throw them on the ground and mutter something in Ancient Greek. They expand into full size tents, facing each other.

"Awesome!" A voice from behind me, yells.

I turn around, of course it would be Leo. I have let go of my anger at his nickname. "Can you set up a campfire and get cooking?" I ask.

He nods his head eagerly. "I'm on it."

I roll my eyes at his retreating form. Even so, I've never seen him so eager-to-please. I wonder what's gotten him this way.

In no time, Leo has set up a campfire next to a dead log, I can hear his whoops of excitement from here. Piper and Jason has sat down on the log outside our tents and are having a serious talk in low voices. I decide to leave them to it and join Leo.

I sit down on a log opposite to Leo. "Hey."

He looks up and shields some of what he has made. However, he can not shield all of it without going into the fire. "Hey, Cal."

Leo looks at me quickly to see my reaction to the nickname but I smile. It's kinda endearing that he's going through the trouble of finding me a nickname.

I smirk slightly. "Repair Boy."

He looks horrified at the name. "I am not a lowly Repair Boy. I am the Supreme Commander of the Argo II. I am Commander Tool Belt. I am-"

"You are a Hammer Head," I state.

Leo shivers. "I'll take Repair Boy over that one. I had a slight problem with a shark in the past."

He launches into his story with vigour. I can't help but admire how he looks in the firelight. The flames cast dancing shadows on his imp-like face. I happen to look over to Piper and Jason and my jaw drops. They're _kissing_.

Leo doesn't seem to notice my face as his back is to me, facing the opposite way to Piper and Jason. Piper leans away with a blush and I quickly turn back to Leo, pretending that I wasn't watching, with my own blush covering my face. I pay attention to his story.

"-The shark tried to bite me but he missed and got a bit of my shorts. That's when Percy swam over and told the shark to beat it and he took off really fast, and ripped off my shorts. Percy has never let me live it down. Thank the gods Annabeth and Piper didn't look."

I burst out laughing. "The 'almighty' demigod, son of Hephaestus, got his pants pulled down by a shark."

* * *

 **Jason**

"I think we need to have a plan for when we face Encedulas," Piper states, pulling me to sit down on a log.

"Our first problem is a god. We're going to need one to defeat a giant. Since Lord Zeus has them all on lockdown, one might not be able to come. If no god comes, we're dead."

I nod along to her words. "I'd say we ask Calypso. She seems more connected to the gods then us."

Piper nods slowly, following my words. "That's a good idea. Perhaps she could get Lady Artemis-"

Piper's words become meaningless as I stare at her. Her hair is braided over her shoulder. She is wearing faded jeans and she has on a t-shirt with the words 'Beauty is a curse' in graffitied lettering. Her jeans are faded last fashionable and her top has claw marks on the sleeves. Beautiful.

Caught up in the moment, I lean down towards her. Piper's eyes widen and she leans up. Our lips meet briefly before she pulls away. "Sorry," she mutters, turning away.

I grab her hand and shivers go up my spine. I pull her into another kiss and it's just as good as the first one. It's slow and sweet and my heart is bursting with emotion. The only other girl I have ever been with is Reyna, the other praetor and I felt nothing like this.

I pull away this time and hold her hand. Piper smiles nervously at me and tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear. "So... What are we relationship-wise?"

* * *

 **Calypso**

"Yo, Piper! Jason!" Leo yells, clearly interrupting a serious conversation. Leo doesn't seem to notice their annoyed looks. "Get over here! Dinner is served!"

I catch Piper's exasperated glance. I look at her with a slightly amused look. _What can you do?_ I mouth.

Piper smiles slightly. She and Jason walk over hand in hand. Leo, of course, is completely oblivious to their over-friendliness.

We are served on oilcloths and there's no cutlery, but the food itself looks mouthwatering. Pepper and beef tacos with chips and salsa.

"Leo," Piper breathes, amazed. "How did you-?"

Leo grins at her, setting the food down in front of her. "Chef Leo is fixing you up! By the way, it's tofu, not beef, Beauty Queen. So don't freak."

I hadn't known Piper was a vegetarian, but if tofu tastes this good all the time, I can't judge her.

* * *

I pass a fireball between my hands. Dropping it into one hand after another. I may not be a demigod but I've still got ADHD.

I'm lying down in Piper and I's shared tent, curled up in my sleeping bag. Piper's vacant sleeping bag is the only thing keeping me awake.

It's past dark by now and the only light is from the still-going fire outside. I can see Piper and Jason's silhouettes, sitting on a dead log.

I suddenly have an idea. I throw the fireball gently into the air and keep it suspended with my powers as an enchantress. I move it to the middle of the tent and it acts as a lamp, casting a soft glow around the room. I let go of my concentration and the fireball stays in place. "Sweet," I mutter.

Outside Jason leans down to kiss Piper before the fire is put out and I can no longer see their silhouettes. Piper walks in with a sweet smile on her face. I sit up immediately. "Well? Are you and Jason together?"

Piper's smile grows wider. "Yes."

I point towards her sleeping bag. "Sit. Tell me all about it."

Piper crosses her legs on her sleeping bag. "So, before we had dinner, Jason and I were discussing the quest. I can't even remember what we were talking about, now, and suddenly he just leaned down and kissed me! It was amazing! It was so sweet and-"

"Ew, Piper. Gross," I shudder. "I wanted the story, without the very specific details."

Piper rolls her eyes. "Shut up. I see the way you look at Leo."

A blush finds it's way onto my gaping face. "What!? I don't like him like that-"

Piper smiles knowingly in the dim light of the fireball. "Please, I'm the daughter of Aphrodite. I know love when I see it."

I huff. "As if the real Aphrodite isn't bad enough!" I decide to ignore what she said about love.

"Every time I came back to Olympus to report about the Titans, she would go on about how ugly they are, or their love affairs, or their fashion sense. I'm so glad you aren't as talkative and dimwitted as she is."

Thunder booms overhead. "Sorry," I mumble. It was probably lucky that Piper didn't take offence as well.

Piper stares at me. "You should really stop doing that."

I frown. "Doing what?"

"Insulting the gods. You're supposed to be keeping under the radar."

"Don't worry. The gods never bother to see who is insulting them. They just roll thunder and assume they've scared the offender." I pause. "Well, the smart ones like Athena, Poseidon, Artemis and a few others keep track. But I would never insult some of the few decent gods and goddesses out there."

Piper shakes her head. "Well, Jason and I are now dating happily. Please don't tell Leo, I don't think I can handle his teasing."

"You got it. What are friends for?"

Piper smiles widely at me before I lay down with my back to her, and fall asleep.

 **-SAW**


	11. Chapter 11

**Calypso**

I wake up before anyone else. Dawn is just breaking and my fireball seems to have disappeared of it's own accord. I carefully stretch and slide out of my sleeping bag. Treading on the balls of my feet as not to wake Piper, I pick my way to the tent door. I grip the zipper tightly as I unzip the door, making sure not to make any noise.

I'm in grey tracksuit pants and a long sleeve top. Both of my sleeves are covered in holes and are barely staying on. I tear off the the long sleeves, turning my top into a short sleeve. I stuff the fabric in my pocket and shiver from the change from the warmth of my tent to the cool morning. When I was packing my bag, clothes didn't seem like a priority

If I was still on Ogygia this would be my prime hunting time. I had only brought a bunch of fruit on the quest because I'd figured I could hunt on the way. Might as well keep up my old habits. I will my finger to catch fire and I burn a message into a dead log. _Gone hunting._

"What are you doing?" A voice asks from behind me.

Much like on my first day on Ogygia, I act on pure instinct. I summon my bow, notch an arrow and turn around. The arrow is pointed at the speaker's throat. This happens in milliseconds.

Leo holds his hands in the air. "Cal, it's just me. I didn't mean to scare you, don't go all 'man-killing hunter of Artemis' on me!"

I lower my bow but scowl at Leo. "I have hunted with the Hunters for years, do not insult them in front of me!"

Leo puts his hands back at his sides in a rare moment of seriousness. "It's true though. They kill men without question."

I can't defend the Hunters on that one. "That is why I haven't joined them. They do have a reason to hate men. That doesn't mean they should go around killing them, but they have been blinded by the actions of one man."

Leo's newfound seriousness lasts another second as he nods in silence. He then perks up. "You never answered my question, where are you going?"

I gesture to the burnt log. "Can't you read? As you noticed yesterday, we've got no food. I'm going hunting."

Turning my back to him, I grip my bow in my right hand and set off towards the woods. I take a deep breath and close my eyes when I enter the forest line. It smells like home. Like Ogygia.

My moment of peace is disturbed by loud footsteps. Leo catches up to me. "Hey. I'm coming with you."

I give him a disbelieving look. "You'll scare all the animals away! Did you hear how loud you were just then?"

Leo raises his hands for the second time today. "I was just making sure I didn't scare you!" I give him a look. "And besides, I'm an experienced demigod!"

"You didn't bring a weapon on a quest," I deadpan.

"Anyone could forget their weapon!"

"Not an experienced demigod!"

"I'm coming with you!"

I grit my teeth, "Fine. But don't be surprised if I leave you alone, a few miles out."

Leo pales but follows me when I take of into the woods.

Fifty metres in, I stop. I rest my hand on a tree. We haven't encountered any animals yet. This part of the woods simply isn't dense enough. "Leo, grab my hand," I order.

He looks at me, confused."What do you mean, 'Grab my hand'?"

"I mean grab my hand! This part of the forest isn't dense enough!" I say angrily.

Leo grabs my hand.

We appear another mike further in and I get rid of my bow. I tilt my head slightly. I can hear the lapping of water that indicates a river. The trees are more strongly built and much, much taller. The grass is a darker hue of green. This is the perfect place for an animals home. That means this is also the perfect place to hunt.

I wander around a bit, trying to find a good tree to look around from. Eventually I find a good, twenty metres tall tree, with many footholds. I smirk at Leo, "Let's see if you can live up to your claim of being 'experienced'."

I step onto a low branch, stamping a bit to test its strength. It hold securely in place and I put all my weight onto it, grabbing onto a higher branch just in case it snaps. I stretch to a bend between two branches and pull myself up. At a deft pace, I go higher and higher until I no longer want to look around the area but to reach a point to watch the sunrise.

I watch a mother bird feed it's chicks while I wait for Leo to join me. Many curses and snaps of branches later, a slightly battered Leo joins me. I smirk at Leo. "Nice tree climbing skills. You realise you need to test a branch before you put your full weight on it, right?"

He ignores my comment. The way that the branch is bent, forces Leo to be sitting very close to me. Not uncomfortably so, but every once in a while, our knees bump against each other.

After a few minutes I get bored and carefully stand up. I nimbly jump to a thick and sturdy looking branch, a metre to my left and slightly higher than the previous branch. I hold my balance with the grace and ease of a huntress. I hear a sharp intake of breath behind me.

I grin at Leo, "Scared I'd fall?"

The worry has faded from Leo's eyes now that I am safe and seemingly comfortable with my position. "No. I was more worried that the branch would snap from how heavy you are. I'm surprised you haven't knocked down the whole tree yet!"

I draw my bow and casually aim an arrow at him. "You were saying?"

Leo gulps. "No-nothing?"

I fire the arrow.

Leo yelps loudly as the arrow flies towards his head... and completely misses him. He peers down from the tree. "Nice shot."

I jump from my position and land rolling. I stand up next to the dead deer and examine it. I pluck my arrow from it's eye and it disappears from my hand. "αιώνια ειρήνη," I mutter.

I turn and look up at Leo. "Next time, Repair Boy, that will be aimed for you. And you just saw how good a shot I am."

Leo makes his way down the tree, once again snapping many branches and having to grab the tree trunk to stop himself from falling. Thirteen metres from the ground, Leo moves his left foot to another branch. When it holds, he also puts his right foot there and lowers his weight from the branch he's grasping with his arms. With Leo having his luck, the branch snaps and he free falls thirteen metres to the ground.

I laugh until I notice the way Leo is cradling his ankle. I crouch beside him and hold my hand over his left ankle.

"Broken," I mutter.

Leo hears my observation and groans loudly. "Really? I survive the cyclopes, the mutts and _you_ , only to break my ankle falling out of a tree!"

I help him up. "If you weren't already hurt, I would shoot you for adding me to that list."

I lift the deer onto my left shoulder, supporting it with both of my arms. Balancing the weight with my left arm for a second, I sling Leo's arm around my shoulders. His forearm is resting against the dead deer and I can't help but inwardly smirk about how squeamish that must make him.

I go back to supporting the deer with both of my arms. "I'll have to heal you when we get back. If I heal you now, I might not have the energy to teleport us back."

I focus on the spot that we first entered the woods. The spot where Leo and I had our argument. I stumble a bit when we reappear. Teleporting twice in one day with someone else as well as having to carry a heavy deer and support a heavy boy is not good for my health. I'm even feeling the effects of burning that message into the log. Being blessed by Hestia as well as being a sorceress makes my gift of fire come easily and naturally, so using my fire powers barely costs me any effort. Normally.

Leo notices me stumble and tries to lift his arm from around me but I shake my head. "It's just the teleporting," _as well as the heavy deer and the heavy boy._ "If it wasn't such a short distance I would've passed out already. I'm fine, though. Come on, let's get back to Piper and Jason."

Leo, being Leo, buys my answer and balances his weight back onto me. I heft the deer into a more comfortable position. This deer seems like a particularly sturdy and fat one. And with the effects of two teleportations waning on my strength, I don't currently appreciate the fact that there is going to be more food to eat later on.

I walk as well as I can, trying not to look as exhausted as I am. I mean, it's only about eight in the morning! Piper and Jason come rushing towards us from our temporary camp.

"Oh my gods," Piper says, coming to a stop. "What happened?!"

Our continued movement towards the camp forces Piper and Jason to walk backwards. I note that neither Piper nor Jason offer to help me.

"The idiot fell out of a tree," I state, annoyed.

"Then why haven't you healed him yet?!" Piper stresses.

Piper is an amazing fighter and an even better friend, but when it comes to the people she cares about, being hurt, she turns into a true daughter of Aphrodite. Unable to think properly and very unhelpful.

"Piper, calm down," Jason instructs, laying a hand on her shoulder. Piper calms under Jason's touch and I can't help but shudder in disgust at how perfect they are together. I swear, if I ever end up like that, I'll kill Aphrodite myself.

"Calypso will heal him as soon as we get back to camp, right?" Jason continues, turning to me.

I honestly doubt that I will have enough energy but now that it's been proposed, I'll have to. Despite my lack of energy and the fact that Jason has made it worse, I still send a grateful look at Jason and nod in answer to his question.

I set down the deer on a clean patch of grass and have to suppress a sigh of relief. My shoulders are aching and I stretch, disguising it as supporting Leo even further. I help Leo sit down on the burnt log and kneel with him. Luckily its a clean break.

That's when Leo remembers my previous exhaustion. "Calypso, are you sure you can-"

I cut him off before he can alert Piper and Jason. "I'll be fine."

I ignore Piper and Jason's confused looks and Leo's worried look and hover my palm over Leo's ankle. I focus on my last remnants of energy. I've never actually dealt with a break, but I know I can do this. I focus completely and cut off what's going on around me. I ignore Piper and Jason's hushed voices and Leo's irregular breathing and close my eyes tightly.

I can practically feel my remnants of energy as they flow through my body and into my hand. I close the gap between my hand and Leo's ankle and pour the energy into him. I shudder violently as the energy leaves me and I can vaguely hear Piper yelling.

I collapse on the ground, motionless and without energy. My body starts to send me into a deep sleep to regain some energy.

Before I'm fully unconscious, I feel myself picked up bridal style and someone kisses me on the forehead. "Thanks, Cal," Leo's familiar voice murmurs in my ear.

He continues to whisper to me but his words are lost and replaced with silence. The darkness embraces me.

 **-Stars**


	12. Chapter 12

**Calypso**

I wake up in Piper and I's tent, alone. There is a lingering scent of fire in the room. I smile, Leo must have been here often.

I sit up and stretch. It's deadly quiet outside, no wind, no birds, no voices. I start to worry until Leo walks in. He rushes up to me when he notices I'm awake, "Thanks the gods you're awake! You had us scared to death! You've been out for two days! Are you alright? I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were so tired!-"

"Wait," I say holding up my hand. "I've been unconscious for two days?!"

Leo nods energetically and I push my sleeping bag off me. I stand up, brushing away Leo's helping hand. "We've got to get moving now! If we don't get to Hera in two more days, she's as good as dead!"

I hastily walk out the tent, getting Piper and Jason's attention. They rush over to me and Piper envelopes me in a hug. "Are you okay?"

I gently push her off me and she looks at me with a hurt look. "Piper, we've got to get going. I've wasted enough time."

I glance up at the sun. It's around midday. I move towards the tent to collect it. Jason grabs my shoulder and I turn around impatiently. "What?!"

"You realise you almost died, right?" Jason says.

"Well I'm fine now," I say annoyedly, shrugging off his hand and walking back towards my tent.

"Calypso, you were floating on the line between life and death. You used too much of your power. You're in no shape to be teleporting now!"

I grab my necklace, turning around. I hold my knife to Jason's throat. "You have got no right to tell me what to do! If we don't save Hera, we have failed our quest. If our quest fails, the Greeks won't trust the Romans and we would be the cause of the downfall of the gods. Do you want that to happen?!"

I storm over to the tent and replace my knife on my necklace. I grab my bag from beside my sleeping bag and stalk outside. I mutter something in Ancient Greek and the tent collapses into itself. I stuff the piece of fabric in my bag and do the same to the other tent.

"Grab hands," I order. They join hands and Jason offers me his hand. I ignore him and grab Leo's hand instead.

In a blur of light we reappear in a sewer. Darkness clouding my vision, I collapse towards the gritty looking cement.

* * *

I wake up as the sun starts to set, getting rid of the small amount of light in the sewer. It's raining outside but the rainwater gets dropped in a wide crack in the ground and flows under the wall. I look around the tunnel. Not a sewer, a better word to describe it would be corridor. Despite its appearance of a sewer, it is surprisingly clean and free of waste.

I smirk at Jason, Piper and Leo's sleeping figures. I pick up Leo's bag from beside him and drop it on his head. He groans and curls up into himself, clutching at his head. "Caaal," he moans. "That huurrt!"

Using my powers as a sorceress, I take control of some rainwater and flick it at Leo's face. "Get up, you big baby," I order.

Leo merely groans again and cuddles his backpack to his chest. I roll my eyes and wave my hand in his direction. In an instant, Leo is hanging upside down in the air, his bag left on the floor and his head an arms length from the floor. Leo flails his arms around wildly, throughly woken up.

"Put me down!" Leo demands. It's hard to take him seriously from his current position.

"Sorry," I laugh, "Did you say something? I can't hear you down there."

I laugh again before waving my hand a second time. Leo has just enough time to cover his head before he gets even more brain damage. "Good thing you covered that hollow head of yours," I comment playfully. "You might have done damage to your nonexistent brain."

Leo sits up, glaring at me but his ever-present grin is already breaking through. "I have a brain! I just-"

"Don't use it much," I supply, smirking.

Leo widens his eyes in indignation, "No! It just- um, got took out for polishing!"

My smirk widens. "Because it wasn't working before!"

A masculine cough sounds from behind us. I turn and smile at Piper and Jason. "Sorry, did Leo wake you? He can be rather insensitive, can't he?"

Leo protests from behind me. "You're the one who tried to damage my beautiful face!"

Without turning, I kick him in the shins. "I would've been doing the world a favour," I mutter back to him.

Piper snickers behind her hand, while Jason suppresses a smirk. "C'mon guys," Jason says. "We should check out what's down here."

I nod my head and my eyes briefly drift to Jason and Piper's interlocked fingers. I smirk briefly at Piper, making her blush. "Yeah," I say. "We shouldn't have ended up in a sewer. Something interfered with my magic. I'm surprised nothing has attacked us yet. Which can only mean one thing..." I trail off.

"They're waiting for us," Jason finishes, creating an deafening silence.

"What do you mean by waiting for us?" Leo pipes up. "Like shower with gifts, waiting for us?"

We all ignore Leo. Jason flips his coin in the air and catches it as a sword. "Ready?"

I summon my knives. "Let's go find what's trying to kill us."

* * *

 _Parking, Kennels, Main Entrance: Sewer Level_

 _Furnishings and Café M: 1_

 _Women's Fashion and Magical Appliances: 2_

 _Men's Wear and Weaponry: 3_

 _Cosmetics, Potions, Poisons & Sundries: 4_

I stare at the directions sign in front of us. "Are all sewers this welcoming?"

Leo shudders and shakes his head. "No, definitely not."

I raise an eyebrow at him and he shrugs it off. "Hey. I ran away seven times, I've slept in some weird places, okay?"

Seven times? This is news to me. "Why? What happened to your mother?" I ask curiously.

Leo's eyes darken and he mutters, "Another time." He quickly changes subject, "What do you reckon the kennels are for?"

"I don't know," Jason answers, scratching his head. "So, shall we stick to this level?"

Leo grins. "I dunno, man. I was all for Woman's Fashion, but if you insist, I guess we'll stay on this level."

I stare at the glass doors, wishing they were the kind that you could see through. "Before we go," I say turning to Piper. I place two fingers on her forehead and her multicoloured eyes become more detailed and sharper.

"What did you do?" Piper asks. "And why do I feel stronger?"

"I restored what is rightfully yours. It seems that at birth, Aphrodite placed a block on your powers in order to dampen your aura."

Piper looks at me quizzically. "My aura?"

I sigh. "Every demigod or demi-titan has one. Your aura depends on how strong you are. If you are strong, your aura will be more potent, but if you are weak, your aura will be the same. The stronger the aura you have, the more monsters that will come after you. My aura is very strong but I have masked it. Your mother did it to protect you. You really _must_ be her favourite child."

Piper smiles distantly. "Why'd you only restore it now?" Her voice wasn't one of hostility, it was of sincere curiosity.

"I hadn't noticed until a few days ago. I get the feeling you might need it now."

"Thank you-" Piper says but the rest of what she was saying is lost when the doors start to open.

Making a split second decision, I turn myself invisible. Strangely when I turn invisible, I feel a rush of power. Like instead of draining me, the invisibility has done the opposite. I don't have time to ponder this further as a beautiful woman steps out from the doors and stops short in obvious (well to me) fake surprise. "Well, I didn't expect to have any customers!"

The woman is in her forties or fifties, she looks like a retired supermodel. She wears a dazzling black dress that goes down to her ankles. She has sleek and shiny, long black hair, styled over her shoulder. The most, well, only unsettling thing about her is her eyes. They're a clouded grey, not stormy like Annabeth's but swirling, swirling with magic.

While examining her, I seem to have missed the rest of her conversation with Piper, Jason and Leo. The woman walks back through the doors and Jason and Leo follow her blindly, their eyes glazed over. Piper follows hesitantly after them but whispers something first. "Try and find out her weakness and how to fix the boys. I trust you, Calypso."

I slip through the closing doors before stopping right past them. I haven't been feeling the usual fatigue from using my powers. I examine my aura in my mind before noticing something. Aside from the normal fiery edge around my aura, it also had a silvery glow about it. Artemis blessed me! That is the only explanation. It makes sense that I am not feeling the usual power drainage as Artemis has made me stronger than before. Which also means- oh gods. Cursing silently in both Latin and Greek, I quickly put a thick mist of magic over my aura, dampening its obviousness.

Not quick enough though, the woman turns and gives my general area a suspicious look. She then smiles brightly at Jason and Leo, ignoring Piper. "I am the Princess of Colchis. You may call me Your Highness."

That alone gave away much. Colchis was an ancient religion from mythology. That was the first Jason's goal for his quest. But that place doesn't exist anymore. And neither does its princess. It's sorceress. Medea.

Piper trails at the back of the group and I come up beside her. Just as I'm about to whisper in her ear, she says something barely audible herself. "Medea," she hisses under her breath.

I'm honestly impressed with Piper's intelligence. Not many demigods would be able to figure that out, and especially Aphrodite kids. It makes sense that Piper is Aphrodite's favourite.

"Nice work," I whisper in Piper's ear, making her jump and causing Medea to look at her in suspicion. "She's a sorceress, so an outright attack should be the way to go. She'll be no good in close combat. Use your charmspeak to counteract her's. Try and snap Jason out of it, I'll handle Leo."

Piper smiles at Medea until she turns her focus back to Leo and Jason. "How are you gonna handle Leo?" Piper hisses from the corner of her mouth.

"Knowing you, it'll be some way violently," she continues quietly.

"You read my mind," I murmur lowly.

I slip away from her and she doesn't make any attempt to talk to me again.

"So, Your Highness, you're new to America?" Jason asks without a note of suspicion in his voice.

"I am.. new," Medea says agreeably.

Piper snorts quietly. "Yeah, centuries old, 'new'."

Medea studies Piper's face with irritation before her face changes back its usual fake, yet beautiful smile. "May I know your names, children?"

"No-" Piper starts to say before Jason cuts her off. "I'm Jason, this is Piper, and this is Leo." At least the magic seems to have made him forget about me being here as well.

The look on Medea's face when she hears Jason's name is fleeting. But I have sharp eyes and the memory burns itself into my brain. Medea's skin literally glows, her face contorting into a horrible scowl. The kind of scowl that would give children nightmares. Her eyes burn with anger and you can practically see her skull beneath her skin. Then the look vanishes and she looks like a normal woman with a nice smile.

"Come children," she says cordially. "Let's go shopping."

 **-SAW**


	13. Chapter 13

**Piper**

The smart thing to do is run. Wait for Calypso to regain enough energy and stay in the sewer/corridor until then. This isn't an option anymore, thanks to the boys. So I may as well go along with whatever Medea is trying to do, if I can charmspeak Jason out of it on the way, even better.

I feel Calypso move away from me, thank the gods that it's her that's invisible. If it was anyone else, they wouldn't be as stealthy or as clever. I'm slightly impressed by how easily she is maintaining her invisibility.

This place is like a shopping mall, minus the zombie-like crowds. I guess it wouldn't make very good business to be running a store in a sewer. Perfect for people like Leo, of course, who seems to have spent time sleeping in sewers. But Leo being Leo, would find himself a way to be kicked out of this ghost shopping mall.

Leo and Jason seem to be completely awed by Medea. She has somehow brainwashed them. They look at her like she is the centre of the universe. I watch on jealously as Jason gazes at Medea with glazed over eyes.

Medea leads us to an elevator and I casually rest my hand on my dagger, more for comfort than defence. I highly doubt that Medea would attack before she is sure of her control over Jason and Leo. I sense Calypso squeeze in the elevator in front of me. I shift from one foot to the other continually, pretending to be absentmindedly backing up, while really I'm giving Calypso more room.

"We shall be visiting potions first, we have a very wide variety," Medea says pleasantly.

I grit my teeth and wait for the doors to open. I hate being in this confined space with Medea. It makes me feel claustrophobic. When the doors open I'm the first to step out- well aside from Calypso.

Medea steps out confidently from behind me and Jason and Leo follow her blindly. Medea picks up a clear vial. "This is our potions section. This potion here will restore any memories that have been taken or lost."

Medea picks up another small red vial. "And this one can heal anything."

"Wait, like, cancer?" Leo asks in slight awe.

"Yes, anything. And this potion will calm anyone down." Medea points to a violet glass bottle.

"So, it can like, stop abusive best friends?" Leo asks, giving me a small sign that he's really still in there.

"I'm going to kill him for that," a voice mutters in my ear. I don't even jump in surprise at Calypso's sudden 'appearance.'

Medea doesn't answer but instead gestures to a shelf of light blue potions. "These ones will cause you a very painful death."

"Awesome. Can I get some of that to go?" Leo says in true Valdez fashion.

I stifle a laugh while Calypso whispers in my ear. "It's like he isn't even under the potion. He's just as empty-headed as before!"

Medea is starting to get annoyed with Leo's constant interruptions, I can tell that much. Even while under a spell, Leo can get on anyone's nerves. It's a relief that he hasn't met any gods yet, because if he had, he would already be a pile of ashes.

"Your Highness," I say, probably saving Leo's live. "Can I talk to you alone?"

"Of course, dear. Go wander boys," she orders, fixing her eyes on me. Jason and Leo wander off blindly in different directions. Hopefully, now that they are away from Medea, her magic will stop working.

"Calypso, go. Get Jason and Leo," I murmur, knowing that she is probably conflicted on whether or not to stay with me.

I can feel her hovering next to me anxiously for a second more before she disappears. "I hope you know what you are doing," Calypso whispers in my ear.

Medea's eyes turn cold once the boys are out of sight. "What do you want?" Medea addresses me harshly.

"What in Hades did you do to them?" I say, trembling with anger.

Medea lets out a tinkling laugh and waves her hand as if dismissing me. "Oh relax, dear. They're fine. They are just more... happy this way."

"There's a big difference between brainwashed and happy," I say furiously.

"My dear, better to be brainwashed and happy than not and unhappy. You are pawns for the gods, you are given a death sentence at birth. You will never live for long, so why not be happy while you are alive?"

* * *

 **Calypso**

Leaving Piper with Medea is definitely a bad idea. But letting Leo wander around in a shopping mall full of deadly objects is a worse idea. He doesn't need Medea to kill him, he'll do it himself.

I glance at Jason's back before rushing after Leo. I wait until he turns around a corner and out of site. I grab his arm and let go of my invisibility. _Crack_! I slap him across the face. "What the Hades is wrong with you, Valdez?" I hiss.

Leo merely blinks twice. "Oh, hi Calypso. When'd you get here? Lovely place right?"

Since when does Leo use the word 'lovely'?

I slap him again. "Wake up, Valdez! This isn't a normal shopping mall! That's Medea back there! Sorceress and ex-wife of Jason the first! Killer of Creon, Creusa and her own children! Do you want to add more names to that list?!"

Leo's eyes lose their glazed look and he looks around, startled. "Holy Hephaestus! We've got to get out of here!"

I smile. "Good, you're back to normal." _Crack_! I slap him once more.

Leo recoils. "What was that for?!"

"For calling me abusive. Now let's go get Jason and get back to Piper."

We find Jason examining a bloody Camp Jupiter shirt, with a hole straight through where the chest would be. Jason frowns deeply. "Why does this look familiar?"

"Because," I say, approaching him. "That's from Camp Jupiter. Your home. That's from one of Medea's past victims."

Jason was already on the verge of breaking the spell himself, I merely gave him the final push. His eyes clear and his hand immediately go to his pocket, where his coin is. "We've got to get back to Piper!"

We come back to a furious Medea and Piper with her dagger out. I turn myself invisible again before we come into sight. Medea wails in anger when she notices that Jason and Leo are out of her control.

I sneak up behind her and hold my knife to her throat. I make myself visible. "Hello, Medea. Long time, no see."

"Daughter of Atlas!" Medea spits. "What are you doing on the gods' side?! They will turn on you like they did before! They have no time for demi-titans."

"This time I'm powerful enough to make sure they don't betray me. I have many gods on the council that can guarantee my safety," I say confidently.

Medea smiles sickeningly. "Over-confidence was Kronos' downfall, will it be yours too?" Medea disappears from my grip and reappears ten metres away. She lets out a piercing whistle. Two pure gold, glowing dragons appear, winged and aggressive. One of them has crimson red eyes and the other has dark purple eyes. "I will leave you for my pets to deal with."

Medea starts going up the escalator. "Have fun!"

"Don't let them touch you," Jason warns. "They can burn you on contact."

"Indeed," Medea says leisurely. "These two were gifts from my grandfather Helios. They are sun dragons. They pulled my chariot when I left Corinth. They can no longer fly, but now they will be your destruction!"

"Jason, Leo, Piper, get the dragons. I've got the witch," I say firmly, making the decision for us.

The three charge into battle fearlessly like they have worked as a team for their whole lives. Leo wields his new dagger with skill and precision I have never seen from a boy.

I don't wait to see them get killed, I go straight after Medea. She starts climbing quickly when she sees me coming. She's pretty quick for a two thousand year old, but then again, so am I.

Medea goes for the potions, just like I thought she would. She sprints to the potions shelf and snatches the light blue potion, the one that causes painful deaths.

I draw my bow and shoot quickly at the potion as she turns around. The bottle shatters and the potion spills onto her hand. Before my eyes, the potion seems to melt her hand. A skin-coloured liquid falls to the ground as Medea shrieks in agony.

"Maybe next time, witch," I say and I send an arrow towards her skull, putting her out of her misery. As Medea's body hits the ground, the skin coloured liquid appears to race up the rest of her body. Soon, Medea's body is no more.

I look around quickly to see if anyone is watching, then I approach the shelf. I pick up the red vial that Medea had pointed out earlier and slip it into my pocket. Lucky it's so small. I also grab a light blue potion, wincing, and stuff it into my backpack. Thank the gods I had had the sense to grab my bag when we left the sewer.

I rush to the escalators to find a dragon baring down on Leo, his dagger lying a few metres away. "PIPER!" I yell. Piper turns and sees the dragon baring down on Leo. Her eyes widen.

There's nothing I can do. My arrows wouldn't do any damage to something metal and I'd have to get in close to do anything with my knives. Piper's our only hope- I mean Leo's only hope.

* * *

 **Piper**

 _Thanks for the pressure Calypso_ , I think, as I turn to Leo.

As a demigod, you learn to trust your instincts. Trust your instincts in battle and out of battle. That's the demigod motto. So that's what I do when I start talking to the dragon that's about to kill Leo.

"Stop! You don't really want to hurt him," I say in a soothing voice, inching closer. "That's what Medea wants. Not you. What you really want to do is escape her. My friends and I can help you. Just get off Leo."

The dragon gets off Leo slowly and I continue to speak to it softly, "You're not really evil, are you? Medea brainwashed you like she did to my friends. She's gone now. We killed her. You're free."

The dragon comes towards me in a timid manner, his head slightly lowered and his eyes gentle. I hesitantly reach out my hand towards him and he bows his head, allowing me to pet him. "Good dragon," I murmur lowly.

I hadn't directed my charmspeak to the dragon that Jason was facing so it is a surprise when another dragon nudges my side. Although I'm startled at first, I pet him as well.

"Piper," Calypso comes up beside me. The dragons seem to know she's my friend and they don't attack her. "These are the sun dragons of Helios. They have invincible wings and can burn you on contact if they wish. They are some of the most dangerous creatures in Greek mythology."

Calypso sighs when she sees my face. "You want to keep them don't you?"

I nod eagerly making Calypso smile, "Well, they'll be hard to teleport and the Mist will have trouble covering them." She laughs at my pleading face. "But you can keep them. What will you name them?"

"Vindex and Venator. Dex and Vena for short. Vindex is the one with the purple eyes and Venator is the one with the red eyes." I say, beaming.

"Avenger and Hunter. Seems fitting, but why Latin?" Calypso asks wonderingly.

I blush slightly. "It symbolises our quest. It's to make peace between the Greeks and Romans."

"We need to get somewhere into the woods. I can hunt there, I wish I hadn't left the deer behind," Calypos says sorrowfully.

I laugh. "Don't worry. While you were unconscious we managed to skin the deer and cook it. Leo summoned some containers and we packed it into your backpack."

Calypso peers into her bag. "Good thinking."

Jason comes up beside me. "The witch?"

"Dead. She didn't even put up a good fight," Calypso answers with slight annoyance.

"Alright, Calypso, can you get us going?" Jason asks.

"Yes, everybody join hands," Calypso answers.

I can't help but smile slyly as Leo and Calypso automatically join hands without speaking. Jason grabs Leo's arm and places a hand on my shoulder. I rest my hands on Vindex and Venator, rubbing their metal necks.

I make sure to close my eyes when we teleport. Jason removes his hand from my shoulder, telling me that we have arrived. I give Calypso's unconscious form in Leo's arms, bridal style a smirk.

That's when I start to panic. Where are Vindex and Venator?! They seem to have disappeared from under my hands. They were right next to me a second ago.

I quickly scan the room that we are in and calm down when I notice that my dragons are right beside me. They brush against my legs comfortingly. Then I realise why they blended in, and why I missed them when they were in plain sight.

The whole room is pure gold.

 **-SAW**


	14. Chapter 14

**Jason**

The gold was overkill. Accompanied, of course, by the fat man in a pink bathrobe and the temperamental teenager with the gold sword.

The quest itself hasn't been too bad. Werewolves, man-hating girls, evil sorceresses, partially friendly dragons- nothing that isn't normal for a demigod. And of course I have had Piper to make up for it. She's a pretty good fighter for a daughter of Aphrodite. Scratch that, Piper would kill me for saying that. She's a beautiful girl and an even better fighter. Despite her mother, that is. But an overweight man with a flowery bathrobe? That was crossing the line.

Anyway, the fat man froze when he saw us. He also had on a showering cap, like he'd just gotten out of the shower. "Lit," the man called, eying us. "There are strange people in the living room."

I look over to my friends to find them standing up like me, Calypso now awake. Piper's dragons are next to her, containing their snarls on her command. I reach into my pocket and grip my coin. Piper and Leo seem to be drawing their weapons. I send them a warning look and their weapons go back to their hidden spots in their clothing.

A young man with a gold sword comes to the doorway, his eyes immediately zero in on me, like I'm the biggest threat. I'm the most obvious threat of course, but he should be worrying more about Calypso. This must be Lit.

Lit strides towards me, raising his sword overhead, frowning at me in annoyance. Like, _How dare you come in here and get blood on my sword?_

Piper steps in front of me quickly. "Wait! This is all a misunderstanding. My friends and I got here last night and it was too dark to tell that anyone lived here. I am very sorry for your inconvenience."

Lit retreats back to the old man's side, but his body is tensed and he has not put away his sword. He sticks it into the floor a few inches and leans on it lightly.

"You speak well, girl. Be thankful that Lit has not yet killed your friends," the old man says with a scowl.

Piper gives Lit a friendly smile, making me feel jealous. "Let's introduce ourselves. I'm Piper, this is Jason, this is Leo and this is Cathy."

I have to hide a laugh at Calypso's glowering face but Piper sends her an apologetic look. She probably figured that Calypso wasn't very inconspicuous. The old man plops himself down into a armchair. "Very well. I am King Midas and this is my son Lit. You may sit down."

"Midas?" I say cautiously. "Like turn-everything-you-touch-into-gold, Midas?"

Midas gestures for us to sit back on the golden sofa and we do so, albeit grudgingly. Though the sofa is clearly gold, it seems flexible and comfy.

Midas' eyes twinkle at the question, but not in a friendly way. "I suppose, among other things."

"Impossible, he died," _Cathy_ states, fiddling with her necklace, which I'm sure is anything but an absent-minded movement.

I send Calypso a look, but she refuses to make eye-contact, instead coldly staring at Midas.

"I suppose I was dead for a while," Midas says, stroking his chin. "It seems so long ago. I suppose it _was_ a lifetime ago." Midas chuckles, but no one laughs with him.

"It seems more like a dream than anything. I am most certainly alive now though, and that's what matters right?"

Silence follows his words.

"Enough about me," Midas says 'modestly'. "Tell me about yourselves. Where did you get those two dragons? They are absolutely marvellous!"

Venator and Vindex's growling picks up a notch and they shift closer to Piper, as if to protect her. Their shift in position blocks Piper off from me and I can't help but feel slightly jealous. _I_ should be the one protecting her.

"Vena and Dexie are not for sale," Piper says firmly, detecting Midas' intent. Once she has made up her mind, there is no stopping her. No one makes any attempt to counteract her statement.

"Of course," Midas says hastily. "But may I have a look at them?"

I am gripping my coin so tightly that it is now digging into my palm. Midas stands up slowly and makes his way over. I can't help but inwardly scoff at the fact that I am scared of an old man in the flowery bathrobe. But a leader never shows fear, so my face remains emotionless as Midas approaches.

When Midas is one foot away from Vindex and Venator he suddenly leaps away from them and to Calypso. He touches her on the shoulder and she freezes, her skin turning to gold and a look of upmost surprise on her face. Lit lifts up his sword frowning again and comes to stand next to Midas.

"Ha! _Cathy_ indeed! I know a demi-titan traitor when I see one!" Midas says gleefully.

Leo, Piper and I back up a bit and I pull them behind me. We are all armed by now but Leo looks to be in complete shock. He will be no good in a fight if- no _when_ it comes to one.

"Leo, Piper? Can you handle Lit?" They nod and Leo's eyes somewhat clear. "Good, I've got Midas."

Lit and Midas clearly heard our plans and seem to agree with them. Lit steps away from Midas and charges Leo and Piper head on, but even as he charges I see a hint of regret in his eyes. I go straight for Midas, who stands there waiting confidently in his degrading pink bathrobe. A golden knife appears in his hand and he gestures me forward.

"Bring it on, son of Zeus," Midas says confidently.

I get into position. "Actually, it's son of Jupiter," and I charge the final few steps towards him.

Midas blocks my first strike with surprising nimbleness for such a fat guy, and sends his own slash. I dodge and send a strike to his neck, making Midas duck.

I make sure to keep him at an arm's length, just in case he decides to forget his dagger. I can hear various clashes of metal from behind me as Piper and Leo team up on Lit. Occasionally I hear a vicious snarl or a snapping of jaws from Vindex and Venator. I yell out in pain at the same time that Piper does, as Midas gives me a gash on the face. It takes a lot of power to stop myself from turning to Piper to see why she cried out.

I grit my teeth and send a diagonal slash to Midas' chest. Midas steps back, barely dodging it but my blade hits the belt tying his bathrobe together. I instinctively turn my head as Midas' robes come undone. I receive a kick to the chest from a slippered foot and I am knocked to the ground. Midas places his foot heavily on my chest, his bathrobe clutched together with his left hand. I groan as the smell hits me, Does this guy ever wash?

"It looks like it's over, son of Zeus," Midas taunts me.

"Jupiter," I pant, almost gagging from the stench.

Midas raises his dagger and that's when I realise it, Midas isn't going to turn me into gold, he's going to kill me. "Styx," I murmur under my breath.

Midas gives me a grin. I guess he was trying to make it so it was the last thing I saw, or maybe he was trying to say something like 'The almighty son of Zeus falls,' or maybe it was 'Ha, you just got defeated by an old man,' or maybe he was just in a really good mood. Actually, forget the last one, do Greek myths even get in good moods? All the ones I've met have either wanted to kill me, kidnap me, send me on certain death missions or sacrifice me. Are you seeing a pattern?

A choking noise brings me from my distracted thoughts and I look up at the silver tip of a dagger in Midas' chest. Leo's dagger. The dagger is withdrawn from his chest and Midas is shoved away from me. I sit up quickly and stare at Midas' body. Leo breathes heavily from above me. "That was for Calypso," he spits at Midas' dying form.

"Dad!" Lit yells from behind me. He shoves past me and kneels next to his father's body, a look of pure panic and horror on his face.

"Son," Midas whispers. He reaches up to touch Lit's face. I can only register the cruel glint in Midas' gold eyes and the fear in Lit's blue ones before it's over. Lit freezes up, the gold spreading from his face to the rest of his body. Midas smirks once more before his breathing stops and his body disintegrates.

"I guess he was more of a monster than a man," Piper's voice says from behind me, it sounds detached though. Distant and depressed. No wonder, we just saw a man doom his own son.

"I guess so," I say, sounding as detached as Piper does. "Lit wasn't though. I reckon he had a chance, he was still young."

"Are you okay?" I ask Piper. "I heard you cry out."

"Yeah," Piper nods. "I was looking at you and Midas and Lit nicked my arm. It's nothing really."

Despite her protests, I check her arm and make sure she isn't bleeding too heavily. When I'm done a horrible silence falls over us. Three people died today and one of them was Calypso. The most skilled and powerful one out of all of us.

"Water!" Piper suddenly says excitedly, breaking the silence.

"What?" Leo asks.

"Water," Piper repeats. "That's what reversed the 'Midas Touch.' And if we can heal Calypso, we can heal Lit too!"

"Pipes, I don't know. We can't just turn everyone that tries to kill us onto our side." I give a pointed glance to Venator and Vindex. "What if Lit tries to kill us again?"

"He won't," Piper exclaims, seemingly delighted with her idea. "You said yourself, he isn't completely evil!"

I sigh. "Okay, say we do manage to revert him without us dying. Then what? We can't take him on the quest and we can't exactly set him loose in the wilderness."

"Why can't we take him on the quest! At the end, if we free Hera, we can ask her to transport him to Camp Half-Blood and he can help in the war."

"Guys," Leo breaks in, calmer now that he knows Calypso can be cured. "We should revive Calypso first. She'll be annoyed you waited this long to heal her anyway. She should be a part of this discussion as well."

"Leo, go get some water from her bag," I order. "Pour it on her face and see if that does the trick."

Leo walks over to Calypso and pulls her water bottle from an outside pocket. He takes a deep breath and pours it onto her face. "I'm so dead," Leo mutters.

Lightning fast, the gold fades from her body and Calypso is sopping wet. She splutters and coughs, "Valdez!"

Leo backs up quickly and sends a pleading look at Piper and I. "Calypso, calm down," Piper orders, her voice laced with charmspeak. Piper probably just saved Leo's life.

Calypso's body suddenly flares with fire before it dies out, drying and warming herself. "What the Hades happened?" Calypso asks, slightly more calmly.

"Midas turned you to gold. I fought Midas while Leo and Piper fought Lit. Midas was about to kill me when Leo snuck up behind him and stabbed him in the chest. When Midas was dying he turned Lit into gold. Now we're trying to decide whether or not to turn Lit back," I summarise hastily.

"Don't!" Calypso says immediately. "Midas was on Gaia's side. Just because Midas is dead doesn't mean that Lit isn't still loyal to Gaia."

I nod along to her words. "That's what I was saying. What's to say he doesn't just stab us in the back?"

"Calypso," Piper says pleadingly. "You didn't see when Midas fell. Lit ran to him, despite the fact that Leo and I could've stabbed him in the back. Lit cared for his father although the feeling wasn't mutual. Midas wanted Lit to suffer with him, that's why he turned him to gold. And he was going easy on us, the only reason I got hurt is because I wasn't paying attention. We should give him another chance."

Piper's voice isn't filled with charmspeak, but rather desperation. She could've easily charmspoken us into letting Lit on the quest but she doesn't manipulate us. That is what I believe makes Calypso reconsider.

"Alright," Calypso crosses her arms. "If you and everyone else thinks he can be turned, you may change him back."

It may sound like Calypso is being bossy and we shouldn't need to ask her permission, but Calypso is the true leader of the quest. I get the feeling she will be the leader on the other quest too. We trust Calypso's judgement and she makes her decisions based on our mixed perspectives.

Piper looks at me pleadingly but it is unnecessary. Her speech has convinced me and if Calypso agrees I do too.

"Fine," I say. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"Oh, we all get killed and Hera dies with us, therefore dooming the fate of the world and all humankind. But don't worry, lets heal the enemy and let him kill us," Leo mutters.

"Leo," Calypso says sternly.

"Okay, okay," Leo says holding up his hands. "Who's gonna fix our future murderer, though? Because I don't wanna be the first to go."

Calypso rolls her eyes and takes the water bottle from Leo. She quickly walks over to Lit and throws the water at his form. The second that all the gold is gone from Lit's body and he opens his blue eyes, Calypso mutters something under her breath and Lit collapses on the floor.

"Calypso!" Piper yells.

"Don't worry," Calypso smirks. "It's a sleeping spell, he'll wake up in half and hour. I just didn't want to be the one talking to him."

I grin. "Of course."

Calypso drags Lit's body over to us and grabs Leo's hand, somehow not seeing the obvious blush on Leo's face. "Come on, this should be our second to last jump. I'll teleport us halfway up Mount Diablo so we have time to get ready before the fight. Let me sleep for an hour before you wake me up, then we can fight."

The rest of us join hands and Piper rests her hands on Dex and Vena. Calypso scrunches her eyes shut in concentration. I close my eyes as my stomach flips upside down.

We reappear in a freezing cave halfway up a mountain. I peer outside as Leo rests Calypso on the floor. The ongoing snow from outside gets in my hair. I shiver from the wind and cross my arms, going back in the cave.

"It's snowing," I state obviously, making Piper and Leo roll their eyes.

"Leo start a fire," I order. "We're attacking in one hour so get ready."

Leo starts the fire and brings Calypso and Lit closer to it. Piper and I huddle next to it, sitting close together for warmth.

"Alright," Leo says, sitting down next to us. "Now all that's left to do is wait for our executioner to wake."

 **-SAW**


	15. Chapter 15

_Dedicated to LilyAnt03_

 **Jason**

We head out of the cave and Calypso peers upwards. We seem to be slightly under halfway up the mountain. Calypso must have been slightly off when teleporting, but I suppose we needed somewhere to stay out of the cold and this _is_ the only cave.

"Calypso can you get us any closer?" I ask.

"I believe so," Calypso says. "It is a short jump, so I should be able to make it."

We all join hands and Lit looks at Calypso warily, since she's the only one with a free hand, and offers his hand. Calypso glares at him until he places his hand on my shoulder.

We reappear just out of sight of the flat mountaintop and Calypso stumbles forward slightly, resting her hand against the mountainside. Leo offers Calypso a flask and she gladly gulps down some nectar.

Leo raises an eyebrow when Calypso stuffs the flask into heffect own bag but doesn't say anything. She carefully creeps up so she can see past the summit.

"Okay," Calypso says quietly. "You four should distract Enceladus while I free Thalia. She is directly opposite us when we come in so I will move around the outskirts."

"Distract!" Leo protests. "Are you just assuming that we can't kill him ourselves?"

Calypso raises an eyebrow. "Not without a god, I don't think you can. And I do not believe that Artemis would be willing to help a group with three boys. She would, however, be inclined to help her best friend and her lieutenant."

"Okay," I say after a pause. "That makes sense. Go up on three?"

"Eh," Leo shrugs. "I can only count to two." And with that he charges up to the mountaintop.

"Idiot," Calypso mutters, jogging after him.

Piper and I exchange a bewildered glance. Piper shrugs and gives me a quick kiss, "In case I die." Then she follows Calypso.

I follow her closely up the mountain and I hear Lit's footsteps behind me. What I see when I come up, makes me immediately draw my weapon.

"So guys?" Leo gulps, nervously meeting Enceladus' harsh gaze. "The plan? I think he heard it. Like _all_ of it."

I calculate the distance quickly, Enceladus is at least twelve metres away, but I'm sure he could easily cover that distance with a few strides.

Our advantages: Enceladus is much bigger than us. He probably isn't slow like in the movies but if we stay close to him we can hopefully use his size to our advantage. He can't be outsmarted but maybe he can be tricked or distracted.

His advantages: Enceladus is much bigger than us. He can't be outsmarted. We will be fighting with a man-killing goddess. She is just as likely to kill us as Enceladus is, possibly more likely. He is stronger than us. We're on a rescue mission, which means our attention will be divided. And right, Enceladus is much bigger than us.

Great odds so far.

My attention changes to a movement behind Enceladus. A girl wriggles forward so she is just in the firelight. Her eyes widen when they meet mine and I know the exact same expression is on my face. Thalia Grace. The only person who had ever cared about me before Camp Jupiter. The girl that had protected me from my drunk mother, the girl I hadn't seen since I was a toddler, my sister.

Thalia's wrists, legs and ankles are bound together by thick lengths of rope and there is duct tape over her mouth. She has various cuts on her arms and legs and an angry gash on her face, covered by dried blood, otherwise she seems to be fine. Thalia is wearing a sliver parka and silver leggings, her open parka shows a black t-shirt. I can just about make out the words on it. _Death to Barbie_. I raise my eyebrows at her choice of t-shirt.

I switch my attention back to Enceladus. "-Gaia is creating a better world. One without the gods! You will be treated as royalty, as heroes! All you have to do is join us."

"Thanks for the offer but I kinda think we're gonna die either way. At least this way I won't have the murder of a couple hundred gods on my conscience. and besides, we aren't exactly weak. Introducing Sparky," Leo gestures to me. "Beauty Queen," he gestures to Piper. "Suns-" Leo sees Calypso's glare and hurriedly changes what he was saying. "And me, the Amazing Flaming Valdez!"

Calypso pushes Leo behind her and steps forward. "Excuse our Repair Boy. What he meant to say was, we're not interested."

Calypso throws one of her knives at Enceladus' head which goes a few inches to his right and lands right next to Thalia, sticking itself an inch into the snow and probably hitting the dirt underneath it as well. Thalia's eyes widen with... admiration? Shouldn't she be scared that Calypso almost just killed her?

Thalia closes the gap between her and the knife and starts furiously rubbing the rope thing her wrists together against it. Of course! Calypso never misses, with both her bow and her knives. The knife landed where she wanted it to land, and just where where it needed to land.

Enceladus laughs, a deep booming sound that sends shivers up my spine. "You missed," he says mockingly.

I decide to skip his inevitable speech and go back to watching Thalia quickly.

The lasts few strands of rope that are left break and Thalia moves her wrists around, unraveling the rope. The rope finally falls off and she quickly rips off her gag, not even wincing. Thalia grabs the knife from the ground and starts sawing away at the rope around her legs.

My eyes swivel back to Enceladus when he draw his sword. It makes a sound like a thousand nails on a chalkboard and I have to cover my ears.

"What did I miss?" I hiss quietly to Calypso.

She shrugs and uncovers her ears, "Just the usual bragging and undermining of us 'weak demigod upstarts'."

"Unlucky for him, I'm not a demigod," Calypso continues casually, drawing her bow.

I chuckle. "Save some of him for the rest of us. I'm sure my sister would like a little revenge."

The rope around Thalia's legs gives way and she starts working on the rope around her ankles.

Calypso fires an arrow into Enceladus' chest and he stumbles back. He growls in annoyance and spreads his arms. All around us the ground erupts, monsters appearing from the earth.

I scan them quickly, a couple dozen Cyclopes and earthborn, a couple empousa and dracanae, a dozen wild centaurs. Easy enough. Then my eyes land on the drakon. Great, just what we needed. A tougher enemy.

Thalia stands up ahead of me. A spear appears in her left hand. No one is moving besides her but no one is looking at her either. Thalia balances the knife in her right hand. She moves her arm back then as quick as lightning, snaps her arm forward. The knife plants itself into the throat of a particularly large cyclops and it dissolves quickly.

Calypso sets fire to the cyclops' ashes and calmly picks her knife back up. It reappears on her necklace. That's when the monsters snap to their senses and attack.

Thalia switches her spear to her right hand and a shield appears in her left. She and Calypso charge towards Enceladus. While Leo, Piper and Lit attack the monsters, I do my best to defend Thalia and Calypso.

* * *

 **Calypso**

"You're Thalia?" I yell as we attack Enceladus.

She spins to the right of Enceladus' blade as it crushes to ground she had previously been on. "Yeah!" she shouts back. "Who are you?"

"Calypso. Of Ogygia," I reply, rolling under a strike intended to slice me in half.

Thalia's eyes light up. "Really? Artemis talks all the time about you. She's still furious that you got banished."

"Good to hear," I laugh, dancing out of the way of Enceladus' strike.

I slash at Enceladus' arm and roll between his legs to avoid Enceladus' sword as he drives it straight down where I was standing. I come up standing between his legs and stab directly upwards, both Thalia and I grinning at Enceladus' agonised scream.

"Here. Catch!" I yell, tossing the flask of nectar under Enceladus' overstretched arm. "It looks like that cut on your face is bothering you."

"Thanks," Thalia says as I divert Enceladus' attention.

"You're welcome," I grin. "So you're Zoé's replacement?"

Thalia scowls and deflects Enceladus' blade of her shield. "Unfortunately," she spits. "Atlas killed her in front of my eyes. I would do anything to put my spear through his back. You are her sister aren't you?"

"Yes," I say solemnly. "It is good to see that there is a good huntress in her place as lieutenant. Although, you do not have the standard weapons for a Hunter of Artemis, do you?"

"I know- WATCH OUT!" Thalia tackles me just as Enceladus' sword flies above our heads. She helps me up, "It was my condition for being lieutenant. I got to keep my usual weapons. Artemis demanded in return that I must be able to handle a bow and hunting knives and I have to carry a bow on me at all times. The second part didn't work though, when I was captured, they took all of my obvious weapons."

"I've got a spare Hunter's bow and quiver in my bag, you can have it afterwards," I drive my knives into Enceladus' left leg as he tries to kick me.

Thalia looks at my bag doubtfully. "It's bottomless," I quickly explain as Enceladus roars in pain.

Jason knocks a trident that was flying towards me out of the air. "Thanks Jason!" I call.

"You're welcome!" He yells back. "When do you reckon Artemis is going to show up?"

" _Lady_ Artemis, Jason," I shout over my shoulder. "And she will be here soon. Don't worry."

* * *

 **Jason**

I stab an empousa in the stomach before ripping my blade out and slashing a cyclops in half. I rush to intercept a dracanae coming towards Calypso, making quick work of it by lopping off its head. I summon a gust of wind to scatter the monster dust on the mountain before continuing to fight.

I glance over to see Piper taking on a whole two dozen cyclopes by herself. She slashes a diagonal line through one cyclops' chest then spins and stabs another one in the chest. Vindex leaps up and snaps his jaws around a cyclops' neck while Venator tackles a cyclops sneaking up on Piper.

I dodge a dracanae's trident and drive my sword through it's chest. I glance at Thalia quickly just to see a centaur aiming an arrow at her turned figure. I lunge towards Thalia and shove her out of the way, the arrow instead hitting me in the left shoulder. I grunt in pain.

"Thanks Jase!" Thalia yells. "You okay?"

I stumble forward, my shoulder aching- more than it should be. I snap the arrow in half clumsily. Strangely the feather on the arrow is coloured green. _Poison_ , I gulp. "Yeah, I'm fine," I call to Thalia, probably unconvincingly.

A flash of light distracts Thalia. "Artemis!" she yells. "Hades yes! Now we've got a real fight."

I spot the drakon and make my way over, wanting to get away from Thalia before she suspects anything. The drakon lunges at me as soon as I'm in reach. I barely mange to turn and dodge. I stab my sword into the drakon's back as it looks around to see where I went. Unlike I'd hoped the drakon doesn't disintegrate immediately and instead rears onto his back legs. Since when do drakons do that?

I desperately hold onto my sword as I am lifted into the air. _A winged drakon?_ _Really?_ The drakon shakes and jerks, trying to get me off his back. I manage to get into a somewhat comfortable position, sitting with a leg either side of the drakon.

I pull my sword out and hold it in my right hand. I feebly and slowly move towards the drakon's head, using my sword to pull myself forward and my left hand to keep myself secured. A fiery numbness is in my shoulder now and spreading to my arm and hand. When I can no longer feel my hand, I pitch myself forward as far as I can, stab at the drakon's face and by some miracle, hit it's eye. It disintegrates, leaving a pile of dust and the skull of it's head. It's a terrible spoil of war if you think about it, who's gonna lug around a giant skull to show off to people?

* * *

 **Calypso**

The battle was basically won when Artemis arrived. I sprint towards Enceladus, dodging his sword and jumping as high as I can. Thalia gives me a boost with the winds and I step on a cluster of arrows in Enceladus' groin area, courtesy of Artemis. I stab a knife into Enceladus' stomach, using it to boost myself higher and stab my second knife into his chest.

I kick off his chest and land crouching. But before I can back out of range Enceladus stabs his sword towards me. Before I can react, I am pushed back and Lit is there, deflecting the strike with a shield he somehow acquired.

Lit makes his way back to Enceladus, dodging and weaving past Enceladus' strikes. When he's close enough, Lit drives his sword into Enceladus' stomach and drags it down. At the same time, two silver hunting knives land in Enceladus' throat, going through to the hilt.

Enceladus shudders and stumbles backwards before disintegrating. I look around to see Jason finishing off the last monster- the drakon. He spots me staring and make his way over, walking in a suspiciously uneven line.

"Jason?" I say worriedly. "Are you alright?"

Thalia looks at him in concern. Jason manages a nod before collapsing. "Jase!" Thalia yells, kneeling down next to him and resting his head in her lap.

"Do you know what happened?" I ask gently.

"I don't know," Thalia replies, looking at me with tear-filled eyes. "He took an arrow in the shoulder for me but it shouldn't be this bad."

"Poison," Jason grunts.

Thalia's eyes widen. "Why didn't you tell anyone?!"

Jason weakly shakes his head and falls unconscious. Thalia and I both turn to Artemis. "Can you heal him?" I ask pleadingly.

Artemis looks unconvinced. "Please," Thalia begs. "He took that arrow for me. It would've hit me if he hadn't jumped in the way."

Artemis sighs. "Fine," she says reluctantly.

Artemis waves her hands and Jason bolts up, his eyes immediately open. His eyes meet mine and I give a pointed look at Artemis. He seems to piece it together and stands up, facing Artemis and bowing. "Thank you for saving me Lady Artemis."

Artemis gives him a stiff nod and turns to address me, her face softening. "After you free Hera, your quest will have to come to Camp Jupiter. Polybotes and his army are attacking. Hestia, Poseidon and I will teleport your quest and Camp Half-Blood to Camp Jupiter to aid them in the battle. You will be safe in from Zeus' wrath in both camps. He has cut ties with the demigods and has forced many other gods to do the same."

I nod. "Do you think Hera will get us back to Camp Half-Blood?"

Artemis smiles. "I believe so. If not, I will personally bring you there."

"In fact, I shall bring you to my Hunters' camp. They have set up temporary camp outside the Wolf House and are waiting for your quest to arrive with Thalia. I believe I owe them a visit," Artemis says.

"Okay, one second," I say, pulling my bag off my shoulder.

I pull out the silver bow and hold it tightly closing my eyes. I murmur a spell in Ancient Greek and the bow shrinks down to a sliver ring. I hand it to Thalia, "Just take it off and it becomes a bow, imagine it as a ring and it will appear back on your finger as a ring. It will come back to you as a ring if you lose it so you can't really get rid of it once you put it on. Whenever you draw back the string, an arrow will appear, so no quiver is required."

Thalia looks shocked. "Thanks Calypso!"

I smile. "No problem."

Leo and I join hands as usual, same with Piper and Jason. Thalia places her hand on Jason's shoulder. I turn to Lit and give him a tentative smile, offering my hand. He takes my hand. "Thank you," I murmur in his ear.

"You're welcome," Lit whispers back, knowing I was talking about when he saved my life.

Artemis frowns slightly at the sight of me holding hands with two boys. I catch her eye and shake my head at her in a _don't worry_ manner. She shouldn't worry because it doesn't matter. I wouldn't date Lit if my life depended on it.

Artemis places her hand on Thalia's shoulder and flashes us away.

 **-Stars**


	16. Chapter 16

_This chapter is dedicated to Calefe_

 **Jason**

I am glad when Artemis decides it is time to attack. The constant glares and scowls from the Hunters are tiring and irritating. It's not like we asked to be placed in their camp! Artemis brought us here! I think I'd we had stayed any longer, the Hunters would have 'accidentally' shot one of us.

The plan is for our quest to go in first with the Hunters covering our backs. When the Hunters have dealt with the monsters that are milling around the Wolf House, they are going to help us inside. Thalia and Phoebe volunteered to come with us instead of going with the majority of the Hunters and Artemis had grudgingly allowed it.

The Wolf House is like a giant castle. An uninhabited and abandoned one. It's like how they show them in pictures, with the vines hanging down the walls, the massive doorway without the door. But minus the guard towers, and the moat with crocodiles, and the drawbridge. It was clear that the architect had been going for for a castle/wooden hut look. The abandoned mansion has wooden corners and edges, which probably had looked good back in the day. But now, it just looks unstable, the wood is crumbling away and the stone bricks are covered in cracks.

This is the place where I started my journey. The place where my mother left me with Lupa. The wolf had protected and trained me for all of a year. A year is a long time to stay, normally demigods come at older ages and are able to go to Camp Jupiter in a few days, a week being the longest.

I creep up behind Calypso, who had been spying on the Wolf House for the past five minutes. "Well?" I whisper. "Can we go in yet?"

Calypso nods and leads us out of hearing to where Piper, Leo, Phoebe and Thalia are waiting. "As far as I can see, there are no titans or giants. The monsters aren't particularly strong." Calypso smiles at me, "Which means no drakons or centaurs."

Thalia snickers behind me and I shove her playfully, "Shut up."

"Okay, this time," Calypso says, giving Leo a pointed look. "We all go in together, no charging in by yourself and if you get hurt, come immediately to me to be healed."

"Yeah, yeah yeah," Phoebe says, rolling her eyes. "We know, Calypso. Now let's fight."

"Phoebe is a child of Ares," Thalia murmurs in my ear. "They are generally bloodthirsty and always itching for a fight."

We all reach the tree line. "Alright," Calypso whispers. "Remember, we don't have to watch our backs or deal with the monsters outside. We just need to get in quietly and-"

"Screw this." Phoebe mutters, pushing past the tree line and drawing her bow as she runs. She sends two swift arrows into the eyes of two cyclopes that are right by the door. Phoebe turns to us. "Well?" She shouts, getting our attention as well as several hundred monsters'. "Are you coming?"

We start a quick jog over to her. "Well," Leo pants. "At least it wasn't me this time."

"We've already drawn too much attention," Calypso says. "We still need to get in and the monsters are already attacking us." Calypso's point is proven when she shoves me out of the way of an oncoming spear. "We're going to need to seal off the door."

"Think. Think!" Calypso mutters to herself in frustration.

Her eyes travel to the wooden doorframe and continue upwards, to the unstable and crumbling stone bricks. "Jason!" Calypso yells at me. "Fly Lit over to Phoebe now!"

I grab Lit and lift him up bridal style. He glares at me as we fly above the monsters and doesn't stop scowling until I drop him next to Phoebe. He immediately joins her in defending the door while I fly back to a slowly approaching Calypso, Leo and Piper.

"Take Piper and go help Phoebe and Lit!" Calypso yells before I can even land.

"Wait, what about us?" Leo asks, confused.

"We, Valdez, are going to make our own entrance," Calypso grins.

I pick up Piper without any protests and fly over to Phoebe and Lit, leaving Vena and Dix with Calypso and Leo. I drop Piper behind their small line of defence and immediately bend over, resting my hands on my knees.

"Are you okay Jason?" Piper says, concerned.

"Yeah, it isn't exactly easy carrying two people through the air," I say. "Give me a moment and I'll be good."

"Alright," I say, after a few seconds. "First to die painfully owes the other person ten drachma."

Piper smiles beautifully at me, "You're on."

* * *

 **Piper**

Calypso and Leo's entrance is one worthy of Zeus. Our only warning is the grunts of falling cyclopes, the yells of dying empousi and, of course, the smoke.

The fire spreads through the monsters, creating a wide path of fire, only leaving the cyclopes standing. But even those are quickly shot down by Thalia, Phoebe and Calypso. Leo and Calypso stride through the flames and we back up into the mansion as the area around the door is slowly surrounded by fire.

Suddenly, a cyclops breaks free of the surrounding monsters and charges Leo and Calypso from behind. Before Thalia or Phoebe can put an arrow through it's head, the cyclops makes it to Leo and Calypso.

Leo, catching the alarm in Thalia and Phoebe's eyes, turns around just to be smacked in the chest with a cyclops' club. Leo goes flying through the air and lands at my feet. I quickly pull him out of the fire and through the door.

Calypso, spins, notching an arrow as she turns and shoots the cyclops in the throat. Now that Leo is groaning at my feet, the fire trail starts to disappear rapidly. Now this isn't like a movie where she sprints out of a collapsing building while dramatic music plays in the background. No, instead she disappears.

Soon, a loud crack is heard as a deep stab mark appears on the top of the doorframe, cutting all the way through the wood. I only have time to pull Thalia and Phoebe back as the previously crumbling stone brick above the door collapses, filling in the space of the doorway. The room is enveloped in dust and I vaguely hear Phoebe curse.

When the dust clears, I immediately look to Leo, who is still lying on the floor but now with a smirking Calypso kneeling over him. "Bruised ribs," she announces. "Nothing to bother wasting my energy on healing."

"Wow, thanks Cal," Leo rasps out.

Calypso's smirk grows even wider and she stands, offering Leo her hand. He takes it and Calypso pulls him up.

"Why, did you not tell me that cyclopes are immune to fire?"

"Because it's general demigod knowledge. Besides, if I had, would you have gone through with it?" Calypso asks.

Leo grumbles and brushes himself off, getting out his dagger.

"Alright," Calypso says, staring at the former doorway. She turns around and looks at the two paths that go further into the house. "It should take them a few minutes to figure out that there are other ways in and hopefully before then, the Hunters will have made an appearance. Let's go find Hera"

"Great," Leo grumbles. "Let's go explore the creepy and most likely haunted mansion. This is like a typical scene in a movie. Let's all split up to complete the feeling, shall we?"

Calypso looks surprised, "Good idea, Leo. Thalia, Phoebe, Lit and I will go through the door on the left and you, Jason and Piper go through the one on the right."

"No, that's not what I meant!" Leo yells, but Calypso, Thalia and Phoebe are already gone.

Leo turns to Jason and I. "And this, my friends, is how we end up being picked off one by one," Leo says dramatically.

Jason snickers and I shove Leo through the door on the right, both of us soon following him. "Shut up, Repair Boy."

* * *

 **Jason**

We walk through various rooms before we find anything remotely interesting. So far we have found a set of creepy stairs that Leo refused to go up, several sets of claw marks and a bunch of rodents.

No sign of Hera, no sign of Calypso and the others and no sign of any bloodthirsty monsters. Right now I'm not sure whether that's good or not.

By now Leo has started placing bets on who's going to be 'picked off' first. He's ruled off Calypso, Thalia and Piper as possibilities but he can't decide which out of me, Phoebe and himself that's going to die first.

After an agonising five minutes of this I groan loudly. "Remind me, Leo, why I'm on this list?"

"Because, Jason," Leo says slowly, like he's speaking to a three year old. "After Diablo, you'll probably jump in front of a sword or get yourself killed in some equally heroic way. Phoebe will charge into battle like she did before and a monster will get her. And I was just screwed from the start. If I am going to die though, it will be in some really stupid way. Like I trip over and crack my skull. Or a meteor will land on my head. Or, the most likely one is that Calypso will kill me."

I raise an eyebrow at him. "Really, Leo?"

Piper clasps a hand onto his shoulder, "He's just nervous. Don't worry Leo. If a meteor lands on your head, I'm pretty sure we'd be dead as well."

"Thanks, Beauty Queen. That's really reassuring," Leo mutters.

Suddenly Venator and Vindix start growling at the upcoming door. Piper quietens them while I sneak up to the door. I peer through to the next room and quickly scan it before backing away.

"Alright," I whisper. "The next room is gigantic. There are at least a hundred monsters there, plus Lycaon and a dozen of his wolves. A lot of Hellhounds and Cyclopes, as well as a good amount of empousa and dracaena. Leo, watch out for the ghosts and the crazed axe murderer in the corner."

"Yeah, yeah. Real funny Jason," Leo hisses lowly.

"Hera's cage is right in the middle of the room, so there is no point in subtlety. We can't wait around all day for Calypso, Thalia and Phoebe. For all we know, they could be waiting for us to attack."

Piper snorts, "I doubt that. You saw Phoebe last time."

"Either way, let's go." I reply.

* * *

 **Leo**

So Jason said that there are around about a hundred monsters? That's what, thirty-three monsters each? That's actually pretty good odds for a demigod.

Jason is the first to charge in, closely followed by Piper and then me. Jason slices off the head of a cyclops and I stab a lunging hellhound as we make a direct path to Hera's cage.

I grin at the sight of her in the cage, "Hello, Tia Callida. Need some help?"

Hera scowls at me, "Shut up and get me out of here, Valdez."

You're probably wondering how I know her, aren't you? Well let me share the story of my life. When I was little, my mother needed a babysitter. The only person she could find was a strange old lady called Tia Callida. She wasn't really my aunt of course. She was too old to be my mother's sister, and I never knew my father. She always wore this old black shawl and a hideous black dress.

I guess the first time that she tried to kill me was when I was two. My mother had just gone out to the machine shop and she was looking after me. I was really sleepy and she had put me down to sleep. I had been nestled in a blanket, a strangely orange and red blanket. The bed was basically a hole in the wall. It had a metal slot over my head and strange black bricks. Directly above me was the night sky, I could see the stars and moon.

Everything was fine until my mother came home. She had screamed and snatched me up, all the while screaming at Tia Callida. But the lady had disappeared.

Only later had I realised that I had been sleeping in a fireplace.

The second time was when I was three. She had somehow kept her position as a babysitter and was looking after me again while my mother was out. This time she had let me play with knives, insisting that I had to 'learn my blades early'. Yeah, you could say that she was slightly insane.

The third time was when I was four. Tia Callida had found a rattlesnake in a cow pasture and she had encouraged him to poke it with a stick. I couldn't bring myself to poke the snake. What had it ever done to me?

And the next time, was when I was fi- well, you get it. I had I psychotic babysitter with some serious mental issues. And well, the old hag also happened to be Queen of the Heavens, problem?

"Leo?" Jason says incredulously. "You know Hera?"

"Yeah," I nod. "She's my _former_ psychotic babysitter. My mum eventually had to fire her for getting me to play with knives and poke a sleeping snake. You could say that I know her."

"Poke a sleeping snake? Play with knives?" Piper says faintly.

"Yeah, among other things, she also put me to sleep in the fireplace, but that's beside the point."

Jason stares at Hera, "That's really messed up."

Hera hisses, "Stop talking like I am not here!"

"I know," I answer, ignoring Hera. "How do we free her?"

"Um, the prophecy said that you and Calypso had to free her together.," Jason says.

"Great, so what do we do? Wait around for Calypso, Thalia and Phoebe to make an appearance?" I reply, annoyed.

A tinkling laugh sounds from behind us, "I'm afraid not, demigod. You won't live long enough to see them again."

Jason, Piper and I spin around and Jason levels his sword at the woman. She was probably around twenty, she had a silver crown resting on top of her black hair. She had a snowy white dress and icy blue eyes.

I laugh, "Who the heck are you, lady?"

She scowls at me, "Leo Valdez, Hera's newest little pawn."

I raise an eyebrow at her, "Firstly, that's my name, so get your own! And secondly, I am _not_ Hera's little chess piece. And you didn't answer my question."

Her glare intensifies, "I am Khione, goddess of snow. And _you_ , demigod, will not survive the rest of this night."

 **-Stars**


	17. Chapter 17

**Leo**

So, this crazy snow goddess, Khione. I remember her. She was there the night my mother died. She is the reason my mother is dead.

One night when I had been at my mother's workshop, we'd just walked into the break room when my mom had realized she didn't have her keys.

"That's funny," she had frowned. "I know I had them. Wait here, _mijo_. I'll only be a minute."

She had given me one more smile and she had gone back into the warehouse.

She'd only been gone a few seconds when the door had slammed shut. Then the had door locked itself.

"Mom?" I had yelled. I had banged and struggled with the door, but it wouldn't give way. It just wouldn't open.

"She can't hear you," a tinkling voice had said.

I had turned and found himself facing a beautiful woman. She had worn a snowy white dress. She had a silver crown on her straight black hair and icy, unfeeling eyes.

"Wh-who are you?" I had asked.

She had laughed again. "I am Khione."

"What—what do you want? Where's my mom?"

"Ah, how sweet. But you see, I have specific orders and as I understand, you will one day become a problem to my mistress."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"When my mistress wakes, you are destined to fight her. I do not like that."

"I don't know who you are. I don't want to fight anybody."

"A wise choice," Khione had whispered.

"I cannot kill you yet," Khione had said. "The Fates will not allow it. But they not do protect your mother, and they cannot stop me from breaking your spirit."

"Leave my mother alone!" I had shouted fearfully.

"You cannot stop me." Khione had whispered.

My hands had caught fire.

A strange smile had spread across Khione's face, as if she'd already won. I don't remember what had happened after that. My vision had turned red. Flames had washed over the walls, the locked doors. Khione had disappeared. And I had lost consciousness.

I scowl at Khione. " _You_."

Khione smiles in delight. "Yes, Leo. _Me_ "

"Leo?" Piper says, gripping her dagger tightly. "You know this witch?"

"Yes, I know her!" The words tear themselves out of my mouth. "She's the reason my mother died!"

Jason shoots me a look like, _You need to explain yourself after this._

The monsters are now massing behind Khione. They look closer to two hundred now that they are all gathered together. _Great counting, Jason._

"Khione's mine," I order. "You guys take the monsters."

Khione laughs and gestures me forward. "Come forward and fight me then, Leo Valdez."

"Oh," I mutter darkly. "You want some Valdez, lady. You're gonna get it."

* * *

 **Piper**

Leo charges at Khione, wielding his dagger in his right hand and a hammer in the other. Avenging his mother. How _dare_ Khione kill Leo's mother! No one messes with my friends. And I swear, if Leo doesn't kill Khione himself, I will, very painfully.

The monsters make a gap around Leo and Khione and charge us. I pale slightly at the amount of oncoming monsters but before they can reach us, the front lines are cut down by silver arrows. I look over to see Calypso, Thalia, Phoebe and Lit steadily approaching from a doorway to our left.

I grin and meet the monsters' slightly slowed charge. I slit the throat of an dracaena and kick a lunging hellhound out of the air where it is pounced on by Dix. Vena meets a cyclops' clumsy attack and quickly moves on to a small group of empousa.

Jason's sword stabs through the chest of an earthborn while I kill a cyclops sneaking up on Jason.

"The bet still on?" Jason yells as he ducks a dracaena's trident.

I twirl, kissing him on the cheek as I go before I land my dagger in a cyclops' chest. "Of course. Ten drachma."

I dodge a cyclops' club, kicking it back and slicing off a hellhound's snout in the same movement. "Besides, you heard Leo. I'm in the clear."

"Yeah, well, we both know Leo can't do math anyway."

* * *

 **Leo**

So charging a goddess is probably not the smartest decision I've made. But I have a vendetta against Khione. She is the reason I've floated from foster home to foster home. She is the reason I'm an orphan. She is the reason my relatives hate me.

I hate her.

She is the reason everything in my life has gone wrong.

That is what fuels me as I attack Khione. Adrenaline and anger. If I stop to think about what I'm doing, it's crazy. But it's for my mother.

I swing the hammer at Khione's head and she dodges just for me to swipe at her shoulder with my dagger. Khione barely avoids the strike and my dagger catches some of her hair, cutting it off cleanly.

Khione fights one-handed with a knife made out of ice. I swing at her chest with my dagger and she deflects it with her knife. I stumble back and she sends a burst of wintery air at me. Instinctively, I hold up my hands and a wall of fire roars to life, burning through her attack.

Khione stumbles back, surprised by my fire and I grin. The wall of fire disappears but I engulf my body in flames, my dagger and hammer also being consumed.

Khione narrows her eyes at me and summons another ice knife into her hand. She throws it at me but the knife simply melts the second it gets close to me.

"Sweet," I mutter to myself.

Khione becomes enraged and throws an onslaught of ice daggers at me, backtracking slowly. I burn through all of it.

When Khione reaches the back wall she stops throwing daggers at me. She holds onto her knife and charges, trying to regain some ground. She slashes at my face, which I dodge and kick her in the chest.

Khione stumbles back but when I step forward to attack while she is disoriented, she slashes at my chest. I curse and jump back, glancing quickly at the already steadily bleeding diagonal gash. My Camp Half-Blood t-shirt is now stained with my blood and nearly cut in half.

"Hey, lady! You ruined my top!" I yell at Khione.

Khione scowls at me and stabs at my shoulder.

"Now that's not a very good apology, is it?" I say, dancing away from the strike.

Khione lets out a scream of frustration. I step out of her downward strike and hit her wrist with my dagger hilt. Her knife goes flying out of her hand and I lunge forward, swinging at her throat. Khione sidesteps, swiping me on the left arm as I go past her, with a newly conquered up knife.

I grab my left arm with my right in pain. Khione slashes at my throat, attempting to behead me. I duck and sweep out her legs from beneath her. Khione crumples to the ground and I waste no time in stabbing her in the heart.

Khione's dead body disappears, leaving behind a pile of snow. I rush back to Hera, ignoring all the amazed looks I'm getting from my friends.

"Um, Hera. Are you getting shorter, or is it just me?" I ask nervously.

"No, you idiot! The earth is consuming me!" Hera points at a growing figure made of mud. "Gaia is using me to raise Porphyrion, King of the Giants."

"So you're like a heat-lamp, or a battery?" I guess.

"Joke all you want, Valdez. But if I am consumed, the rein of the gods is doomed," Hera warns.

"Oh, right," I mutter.

"Calypso!" I shout. "Get over here!'

Calypso jogs over, neatly ducking under a hellhound and letting it slam into a dracaena.

"What?" Calypso asks, drawing her bow and starting to shoot any monsters sneaking up on Jason, Piper and Lit.

"I'm gonna try cutting through the cage's bars. Can you work some voodoo magic and make sure once I cut through a one, it doesn't repair itself?"

"Yeah," Calypso nods. She points to the largest tendril, "Try cutting through that one. The magic is starting from that point."

"Right," I nod. "Hold on, _Tia_."

* * *

 **Calypso**

The second Leo starts sawing at the earthen tendril, I wedge a shielding charm after the saw, so the bar doesn't repair itself the minute the metal has passed through.

"Leo? A time estimate?" I ask, already feeling the pull of using magic.

"Five minutes," Leo replies absentmindedly.

"Thalia, Phoebe!" I shout, gesturing them over. "Jason, Piper, Lit! Make sure no monsters can get to us. This should only take five minutes, then Hera will be free."

Suddenly the ground shakes and the figure made out of mud reaches a full height of 15 feet. Porphyrion shakes off the dirt and mud and gives a booming laugh. "Finally! Free at last!"

Leo's sawing slows as he takes in Porphyrion. I ignore Porphyrion and refuse to look at him.

"Leo, keep working," I order. "Jason, Thalia. I need you two to distract Porphyrion."

Thalia activates her spear and shield. "You got it, Calypso."

Jason grips his sword tighter. "Let's go entertain a giant," he says agreeably.

* * *

 **Jason**

I think being a demigod makes you make idiotic decisions. Like for example, entertaining a giant.

Porphyrion watches us approach eagerly, "Excellent! Which gods are you? Hermes? Aphrodite?"

"Did he just call me Aphrodite?" Thalia mutters. "I'm going to kill him."

"I am Jason Grace, son of Jupiter!" I yell up at the giant. "And this is Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus!"

Porphyrion throws back his head and laughs, "So Zeus sacrifices two of his children to me. Unluckily for him, it will not save him. He hides up on Olympus and sends two weak demigods instead."

"If you knew who I was, you would be worried about me, not my father!" I yell at the giant.

"Jason, what are you doing?" Thalia murmurs.

"We will start with boasting, will we? Just like the old times. Very well, demigod. I am Porphryion, king of the giants, son of Gaea. In olden times, I rose from Tatarus, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus's queen." He grinned at the goddess's cage. "Hello, Hera."

"My husband destroyed you once, monster!" Hera said. "He'll do it again!"

"But he didn't, my dear! Zeus wasn't powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on a puny demigod to help, and even then, we almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaea is waking. She has provided us with many of your enemies. We will destroy you at the roots."

"You wouldn't dare," Hera said, but she was weakening. I could hear it in her voice. Calypso kept her concentration and Leo kept sawing, but the earth was still rising inside Hera's prison, covering her up to her waist.

"Oh, yes," the giant said. "The Titans attacked your home in New York. Bold, but unsuccessful. We are the elder children of Gaia, we are wiser. We know how to kill you Olympians once and for all. You must be dug up completely like rotten trees—your eldest roots torn out and burned."

Porphyrion frowns at Leo and Calypso, just noticing them.

"How did a demigod defeat you if they're so puny?!" Thalia yells.

"Ha! You can't honestly expect me to tell you that! I was created to replace Zeus, born to destroy the lord of the sky. I shall take his throne. I shall take his wife—or, if she will not have me, I will let the earth consume her life force. What you see before you, demigod, is only my weakened form. I will grow stronger by the hour, until I am invincible. But I am already quite capable of crushing two little demigods!"

"So, I have finished my boasting. What have you to boast about, little demigods?" Porphyrion finishes.

"I am the son of Jupiter!" I shout. "I am a child of Rome and the praetor of the First Legion! I slew the Trojan sea monster! I toppled Kronos' throne and killed Krios with my own hands! And now, I'm going to add you to that list!"

I fly at the giant, aiming at his head, Porphyrion swats me out of the air, slamming me into a wall.

"Jason!" I hear Thalia yell.

I sit up just in time to see Thalia dodge Porphyrion's sword and plunge her spear between his legs. He lets out an agonising scream and Thalia withdraws her spear, running back to a safe distance.

Porphyrion limps towards her, "You will pay for that, girl!"

I pick up a trident from a fallen monster and throw it at Porphyrion's back. It only has enough force to go in a few inches but it distracts Porphyrion for long enough for Thalia to run over to me.

We stand, side by side, facing the Giant King. "Jason," Thalia mutters. "Help me with this."

I know what she's doing, I can somehow sense it. So when Thalia raises her hand, I do too, channeling the previously silent sky into a storm. A huge lightning bolt crashes through the roof and into Porphyrion.

While he is blinded, I run at him. But before I can get close enough, Porphyrion regains his senses and notices me coming. His sword comes from above me and I dive between his legs as the sword crashes into the spot I had previously occupied. I roll and come up standing as Porphyrion turns to me.

I catch Thalia's eye. _Distract him_ , I mouth.

Thalia draws her bow and starts firing arrows at remarkable speeds, catching Porphyrion's attention. While he is distracted, I sneak up behind Porphyrion and stab him through the back, my sword going through to the hilt.

Porphyrion yells in pain and spins around, my blade still in his back. Before I can move, Porphyrion thrusts his sword through my left shoulder, I yell and immediately crumple when he withdraws his sword. Porphyrion picks me up and tosses me into a wall, my injured shoulder taking the impact. I vaguely hear Thalia scream in despair.

It's all I can do to lift my head to see what's going on. Leo finally saws through the earthen tendril and a crack loud enough for me to hear, resounds around the room.

Hera's prison crumbles into dirt and Hera stands up, throwing off her cloak to reveal a blindingly white gown. She shouts something and everyone looks away. Piper locks eyes with me and her own eyes widen in alarm. She opens her mouth and shouts something that I can't hear and I look at her in painful confusion. A flash behind Piper catches my eye and I look at Hera just as she explodes in a burst of light.

My head falls to the ground and all the monsters disintegrate. I try to close my eyes but it's too late, the light sears itself into my head and it feels like my body is on fire. Everything goes black.

My last thought is, _I guess this means I owe Piper ten drachma._

 **-SAW**


	18. Chapter 18

**Calypso**

The second Hera reverts to her mortal form I start running to Jason. Piper is already there, kneeling by his side, his head resting in her lap.

Piper pours nectar onto his shoulder and the wound heals. Piper wipes away the remaining blood but tears are still poring down her face.

"He saw Hera in her godly form," Piper chokes out.

Hera stands nearby as we all crowd around Jason. "I am sorry, my child. He should have heeded my warning."

"Fix him!" Thalia demands in between sobs.

"I am sorry, I cannot-"

"Yes you can!" Leo says angrily. "You're a goddess! Work your godly magic and fix him!"

"I cannot heal him," Hera says sincerely. "His heart is still beating, but he will die in a few minutes."

"Piper, Thalia, move!" I order, pushing my way up to Jason.

Piper carefully places his head on the ground and backs away. "Wh-what are you doing?"

I drop to my knees and pull off my backpack. I rummage through it, grasping what I need.

I pinch Jason's nostrils shut and I am immediately pulled off him by Piper. "Stop! What are you doing?!"

"Leo, restrain Piper," I command.

Leo looks at me quickly before grasping Piper's arms and pulling her back. "You better know what you're doing," Leo mutters to me.

I pinch Jason's nostrils shut and pour the potion I'd recovered from Medea down his throat. Jason weakly swallows in his unconscious state and I release my hold on him.

I sit back on my knees. "Come on, Jason," I whisper.

I can't do anything but hope. There is nothing I can heal. I just have to hope that Medea truly was good at what she did.

"He is dead," Hera says, causing Piper and Thalia to sob harder.

"Shut up!" I order disrespectfully.

Hera's eyes flash dangerously. "You dare tell me to shut up?!"

I ignore Hera and grab Jason's wrist, dreading what I might feel. A large smile grows on my face when I feel Jason's steady pulse.

"He'll be fine," I announce, getting many relieved sighs. Piper kneels back beside Jason and cradles his unconscious body.

"Calypso," Leo says in awe. "How did you do that?"

Hera clears her throat. "I would also like to know how Jason is alive. I felt his heart stop for a short period of time."

"Medea," I reply. "I took the potion from her. I was only able to get the one, though."

A loud groan is heard and we all turn to Jason. His eyes flutter open. "Pipes?"

"Are you okay?" Piper asks quietly.

"Yeah."

"You owe me ten drachma."

"I'll pay you when we get back to the Argo 2."

Then, in front of everyone, Piper leans down and kisses Jason on the lips.

After about thirty seconds I clap my hands, breaking Jason and Piper apart. They are both heavily blushing.

Leo whistles loudly. "Damn, Jason. How on earth do you end up with someone like Beauty Queen?"

Jason groans. "Shut up Leo. And was that death heroic enough for you?"

Leo shrugs. "Eh. I can rate the being stabbed in the shoulder, but almost dying, because you forgot to shut your eyes? That was pathetic. And also, you didn't technically die."

"Yes, he did actually," I correct. "The potion's delayed effects saved him."

Jason sits up just to be tackled with a hug from Thalia.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Thalia whispers.

"Yeah, my throats a bit dry and you're crushing my bones, but I'll live," Jason replies.

"How am I alive?"

"Calypso," Thalia says in his ear, refusing to let go of him. "She had a potion from Medea."

Jason shoots me and grateful look and gently pulls Thalia off him. "Thank you, Calypso."

"You're welcome," I say, smiling.

I'm suddenly caught up in a giant hug from Thalia. "Thank you so much for saving him," she whispers tightly.

"You're welcome," I repeat.

"Hera," I say, turning to said goddess. "Can you get us to Camp Half-Blood?"

Hera nods. "Of course, Calypso."

"Thalia, you and Phoebe should go back to Artemis and ask her to bring you to Camp Half-Blood too. We're going to need the Hunters for when we get to Camp Jupiter," I order.

Thalia nods and she and Phoebe sprint into the doorway that we had come from before.

"Alright. Jason, Piper get up. We've got to go," I say.

We all join hands and Hera flashes us away.

* * *

We reappear in the Big House in the middle of a councillor's meeting. Many sets of eyes stare at us in shock.

"Hey," Leo says casually. "We're still alive."

Chiron is the first to notice Hera and bow from in his wheelchair. "Lady Hera," he says respectfully and the other demigods follow suit.

Hera waves for them to rise then turns to us. "This is where I must leave you. Goodbye and good luck."

" _Finally_ , she's gone. Can you believe her?" Leo says when Hera flashes away.

"Leo!" Piper scolds. "Don't talk about a goddess that way!"

"Yeah," I say sarcastically. "It's not her fault she killed Jason, at all!"

I ignore all the gasps at my words, "Chiron, why is there a meeting?"

"There is an army of two thousand monsters marching towards us at this very second. They are lead by the Titan Krios," Chiron says gravely. "We need to evacuate the campers."

I sit down in a chair. "Why did Artemis not inform me of this?"

"We have only just found out," Chiron answers. "They have somehow clouded themselves from us up until now."

"Why do you need to evacuate the campers? What are your numbers?"

"We have eighty demigods above the age of twelve," Chiron says proudly.

I nod thoughtfully. "Your camp is protected by Thalia's tree, right? A dome?"

Chiron nods in confirmation.

"Then why not trap the monsters inside?" I say slowly, unsure.

Chiron furrows his eyebrows. "I suppose that could work. But then what would become of the monsters?"

"We'll need fire, Greek Fire. And how many archers do you have? And-"

"Hold up," says a girl with stringy brown hair. "We don't even know who the Hades you are, and you're already planning on torching our camp!"

"I'm Calypso," I say breezily. "Chiron, how many archers?"

"Fifteen, at the most," Chiron replies, amused with my planning.

"Your lake. Perhaps we can rig some sort of bomb inside it? We can get the children of Hephaestus to electrify the monsters that come in contact with the water."

"That will still leave at least one thousand monsters," Chiron frowns.

"Well?" I look around the table, at the campers. "Anyone got any ideas?"

Suddenly everyone starts talking.

-"Fighting units-"

-"Cannons-"

-"Flash grenades-"

-"We stole some of-"

-"Ares Cabin's landmines-"

-" _What_?! How do you steal live landmines?!"

-"The woods-"

-"Hydra arrows-"

I lean back in my chair, satisfied.

"Wow," Leo says, awed. "You're really good at this."

I laugh. "I just got them started."

* * *

An hour later all the cabin councillors are standing on top of Half-Blood Hill. The rest of the campers are hidden in the woods just outside the border.

We watch the army in the distance approach steadily. I've sorted everyone into small fighting units after I was introduced to everyone and given summaries of their abilities. Mostly they are by their cabins but a few groups are different. The Hunters are split into two, with Thalia leading one half and Phoebe leading the other.

I turn the Thalia. "Let down the barrier."

She nods and the wind from outside hits us hard, blowing my hair out of my face. For obvious reasons, Phoebe and Clarrise are with the rest of the campers in the woods, along with Chiron. I am the unspoken leader of this battle.

Jason stares at the Titan leading the monsters with a slightly annoyed look. "He just couldn't stay dead, could he?"

Piper laughs. "Think you can fix that for us?"

"Absolutely."

When the army reaches us, instead of the usual surrender or else speech, they just charge at us.

"Go!" I yell.

We all turn and run, probably looking like complete cowards.

"What happened to their 'join us and you will we rewarded greatly' speech?" Leo pants.

Jason, Piper and I don't answer, instead picking up our pace. Monsters howl from behind us and I glance back quickly. My eyes lock with Krios' and I glare back furiously.

"Thalia!" I shout when we are out of the border's normal range.

The border goes up and the monsters behind us smack into it. We disappear into the trees.

"Alright," I say. "Let's get back to the hill."

Soon all the campers are just behind the hill overlooking the camp. I sneak up so I can just see past the hill and at the monsters.

They don't seem to know what to do. Thankfully, they aren't torching the camp or anything. Krios is barking out orders but the monsters seem unable to follow them.

I turn my head back to the councillors. "The lake!"

I cover my ears and watch as the lake water blows halfway to the border then falls back to the ground, spattering the monsters. We had strategically blown the majority of the water in the direction of a large sunken area in the ground. It now creates a gigantic puddle with at least three hundred monsters. I nod to Jake and he sets off the trap. All the monsters in the sunken area are electrocuted and soon turn to dust.

The army is sent into confusion, the monsters are sent into a panic and against Krios' obvious orders, run to the camp borders and attempt to escape. A dozen monsters are trampled and I hunch down from my spot right by the border.

As soon as the monsters run into the border, landmines set up around the edges of the camp barrier go off in a series of explosions, killing several hundred monsters. The border protects our side and the ground in the camp can be fixed easily by Demeter cabin.

Krios barks a few orders and the monsters crowd back to the middle of the camp, but you can tell that Krios too, is nervous.

I creep back down to the councillors.

"Change of plan," I whisper, turning to Thalia. "Can you make the border partially solid to us?"

Thalia frowns. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, can you make it so I can stand on the border, but I can still shoot arrows and drop things down?"

"I think so, but I'll need to be able to see you."

"That's fine," I say. "You can fly, right?"

Thalia pales. "No," she manages.

I look at her strangely for a second. "Okay. Jason can fly you up first then bring me up."

"I'm beginning to feel like your private taxi," Jason grumbles.

I look at him with wide eyes. " _You_ feel like a taxi? How do you think _I_ feel after having to bring three people halfway across the world?"

Jason grumbles a bit before grabbing Thalia and bringing her to the top of the invisible dome.

I turn to Jake. "Have you got the Greek fire bombs?"

Jake hands them to me and I carefully place them in my backpack.

After Jason brings me up, I send him back to the councillors.

I look at a steadily paling Thalia. "What's the matter, Thalia?"

Thalia's eyes stay transfixed on the drop below us and something snaps into place. "Are you afraid of heights?"

Thalia nods slowly, "I know it's stupid because I'm a daughter of Zeus, but I can't help it." Thalia pauses, like she's considering whether or not to go on. "My mother was always drunk. She didn't care about Jason and I and I had to look after him. After Jason went missing, I ran away. I came back a week later to collect something, just to find out that she was dead. She got really drunk and somehow ended up near a cliff."

"Oh," I say quietly, knowing how it ended. "Thalia, that's in the past. You've got to live in the present. And right now, there are monsters inside _your_ camp. And you're going to help me get rid of them."

 **-SAW**


	19. Chapter 19

**Jason**

I have taken over Calypso's previous job of spying on the army. In total we have six Greek fire bombs, they have been altered to stick to anything. When the first bomb drops out of the sky, a cyclops picks it up before it can land.

"Drop it, you fool," Krios growls at the cyclops. "We have no time for distractions."

The cyclops grunts and tries to drop it but it stays stuck on his hand. The cyclops shakes his hand in the air. Suddenly, it explodes, spreading deadly fire over around fifty monsters. Four more bombs drop, killing a few hundred monsters.

I give a nod to Will Solace, head of Apollo cabin. The Apollo cabin open fire on the enemy and Phoebe and her group of Hunters join in.

Monsters are being picked off by the dozen now, while Krios tries to establish some kind of order among the panicked monsters.

Suddenly a figure drops from the sky, landing with bent knees in front of Krios. Calypso straightens up and looks at Krios. "Hello Krios," she says happily.

She throws the last Greek fire bomb at Krios' face with deadly accuracy.

"Bye Krios," Calypso says, grinning.

Calypso appears back next to me just as Krios goes up in flames. "What did I miss?"

I shake my head. "Leo's rubbing off on you."

We walk back to where the councillors are.

"Are you ready to go?" Calypso directs to Leo, Piper and I.

Leo grins. "Let's go kick some monster butt."

* * *

 **Calypso**

The bomb didn't kill Krios.

I find that out the hard way when he tries to behead me.

I duck below his strike just to be kicked backwards. I scramble to my feet as soon as I hit the ground. Krios' face is now covered with ugly burns and scars.

"You will pay for that, girl," Krios growls.

I back up. "I simply made some improvements."

Krios growls and tries to cut me in half with a downward strike. I leap into action, spinning to the right and driving a knife into Krios' arm. I withdraw my knife and kick him back.

I drop my knives and summon my bow. I shoot arrow after arrow as he advances towards me. Krios lunges towards me and cleaves downwards. I summon my knives just in time to block his strike. However, I stumble under the force he puts behind the strike. Even as Krios pushes me back with strike after strike a plan formulates in my head.

"Lit!" I yell when he comes into view. "Shield!"

Thankfully he understands and tosses me his shield. I drop the knife from my left hand and snatch the shield out of the air. I bang the shield on Krios' head and he stumbles back, giving me some breathing room.

The next time Krios sends a downward strike, I deflect it with the shield and Krios stumbles forward from the power he used. I stick out my foot as he stumbles past and Krios falls like a ton of bricks. I quickly stab Krios in the back before he can jump back up.

I dust myself off and look around for Jason, Piper and Leo. So much for fighting units, right?

I notice a lightning strike in the distance and make my way over.

I draw my bow and run over to Leo just in time to shoot a cyclops he had been fighting.

"Hey," I say, dropping my bow and standing back to back with my knives in hand.

"Where'd you go before?" I ask, disposing of a hellhound.

"We saw a drakon, it's gone now," Leo grins, stabbing a cyclops in the chest.

"Thanks for the help with Krios afterwards."

"No problem."

I block Leo as he starts towards a lunging hellhound and pull him down, letting it sail over our heads and into an empousa. I stand up and continue fighting.

"The monsters have stopped reforming," Leo notes, blocking an arrow coming towards me.

I pull Leo out of the way of a dracaena's trident and he quickly beheads her.

"It must have something to do with what Percy, Annabeth, Frank and Hazel are doing in Rome," I reply.

"Yeah," Leo says. "When do you think- Hi Annabeth!"

I spin around to see an Iris Message from Annabeth and Percy in front of Leo.

I wave at her before throwing my knife at a charging cyclops. I stab a empousa that's in the way when I run to get my knife.

I brush my hair out of my face and turn to Annabeth and Percy, "What's wrong?"

"An army is about to attack Camp Jupiter. We finished our quest and I assume you finished-" Annabeth starts.

"Behind you," Percy cuts in.

I stab a dracaena in the throat quickly.

"Piper! Jason!" I yell to the duo fighting to my left. "Can you cover us?!"

They make their way over to us and say a quick hello to Annabeth and Percy.

"Why does Piper have two gold dragons?" Percy says in bewilderment.

"We finished our quest," I say, answering Annabeth's earlier question.

"Good," Annabeth nods. "The army is about f-"

"Why are there monsters inside camp?" Percy interrupts.

"Because we let them in," I answer quickly.

"The army is five minutes off," Annabeth continues. "Did another-"

"What do you _mean_ you let them in?" Percy breaks in, once again.

"I _mean_ , we let the army into the camp and we are watching them as they burn it to the ground," I say seriously.

"But don't worry," Leo pipes in. "We brought marshmallows!"

I roll my eyes and shove Leo towards a hellhound.

"Just shut up and don't doubt my methods," I say to Percy, annoyed.

"It's not your methods that I'm doubting. It's your sanity," Percy grumbles.

"Percy, either shut up, or go help the camp," Annabeth orders.

Percy grumbles but shuts his mouth and Annabeth sighs. "The army is five minutes off and from what we can see, they have at least two thousand monsters. They are lead by Perses and Lelantos, Titan of-"

"Titan of the air and the art of stalking prey, and Titan of destruction," I cut in, grinning at Annabeth.

"Titan of stalkers?" Percy buts in. "Why in Hades do we have a Titan of stalkers?"

Annabeth shoots Percy a glare and he shuts up.

"We've got our own army back here," I say. "They were lead by Krios. But he got annoying, so I put a knife through his back. There are only a couple hundred monsters left. Artemis promised she'd get us to Camp Jupiter, so expect reinforcements."

I swipe my hand through the Iris Message.

"Alright," I say to Leo, Piper and Jason. "There's an army marching on Camp Jupiter in five minutes, so we've got to kill the rest of the monsters quickly."

* * *

 **Percy**

The battle isn't going well. I can tell you that much. Annabeth and I are fighting the Titan of stalkers together while Hazel and Frank take on Perses. While we're doing that, Reyna is doing what she can to rally the Romans and fight the tougher monsters all by herself. Octavian is nowhere to be found and we have an legion of a hundred Romans fighting an army of two thousand monsters. I'm not even going to try and work out how many monsters that is each.

Annabeth is invisible and sneaking up on Lelantos while I distract him. I swing my blade towards his head and Lelantos ducks, backhanding me and sending me flying into a wall. I groan, cursing the gods for taking away my invulnerability.

Suddenly Lelantos spins, sweeping out his leg. I hear Annabeth cry out as she crumples to the ground, her Yankees cap falling off.

 _Stupid!_ I think to myself. _Stupid!_ Lelantos is the Titan of the 'art of stalking prey,' according to Annabeth, (to me it just sounds like another way to say that Lelantos is a stalker), of course he'd feel someone sneaking up on him!

Lelantos raises his sword in the air to finish Annabeth off and I yell out, bolting to my feet and running towards her. I know I won't make it in time though.

To my left, I glance over to see a dazed Hazel off her horse and Arion pacing in front of her, protecting her. Frank flies around the head of Perses in the form of a gryphon, trying desperately to distract him. That's ruined when Perses knocks Frank out of the air and advances towards Hazel.

In that second, just before everything goes wrong, something amazing happens. In my direct line of vision, a giant portal appears, and an army comes charging out of it. Not just any army. Camp Half-Blood.

A red arrow comes flying towards Lelantos and hits him in the shoulder, sending him flying back with a small explosion, and straight past me. I look at the figure emerging from the portal in shock.

Calypso grins at me and teleports to my side without stumbling. "The Hephaestus and Hecate campers helped me change my bow so I have more variety with arrows."

Behind us Lelantos groans and we turn to face him. Calypso notches a green arrow without a tip and shoots it at Lelantos, hitting him in the middle of his chest.

For a second, the arrow does nothing and Lelantos looks down and laughs. Then suddenly it expands, enveloping the Titan in bronze netting.

Calypso advances towards Lelantos, twirling her knife.

"It matters not," Lelantos growls. "Gaia will merely bring me back. The Doors of Death are open and-"

The poor Titan of stalkers doesn't get to finish his sentence. Calypso drives her knife into Lelantos' head and he dissolves into gold dust. The net disappears.

I grin at Calypso. "Nice of you to show up."

"I had to save you from being killed, didn't I?"

"Nah, I was just saving him for you."

"Interesting method. Do you normally let Annabeth die?"

"Shoot," I mutter. I'd completely forgotten about Annabeth.

"I'm fine, Percy. Thanks for checking," Annabeth appears at my side.

"I'll help Hazel and Frank," Calypso offers. "Go kill some monsters."

I glance over to Perses to see Piper and Jason defending Hazel while she gets back on Arion.

"Have fun," I say doubtfully.

I grab Annabeth's arm and drag her towards a drakon.

"Help me," I say.

Annabeth suppresses a smile. "You take point and I'll flank him?"

"You read my mind," I say.

Then I charge the drakon.

* * *

 **Calypso**

I don't know why I didn't anticipate Perses being tougher than Koios.

Perses is the Titan of destruction. Lelantos is the Titan of the air and stalking prey. Lelantos' strong point is in running away, that's why I tied him up with a Hydra arrow. But Perses' strong point is destruction. That means straight up fighting.

I've already tried my previous strategy of shooting a Hydra arrow at Perses but he just snatched the arrow out of the air.

I should explain the arrows. Apollo cabin gave me a Hydra arrow as a thank you gift and Hephaestus and Hecate cabins helped with the altering of the bow so I could use Hydra arrows with my normal bow, because appears normally just appear when I pull back the string. The Hydra arrows can either be used to create a net to climb up or to entangle an enemy. If the net doesn't go around something, the net just continues outwards to a certain extent. But Hydra arrows are rare, so I can only use five before they stop reappearing. I've now used two. Same thing with explosive arrows. On impact they create an explosion, how big decides on how big I will the explosion to be. But I only get five shots and I've already used one.

By now the monsters are all nearly gone and a lot of people are being lead off the battlefield to be healed. Frank bounds towards Perses in the form of a cheetah. Very good for a distraction.

Perses slashes at Frank but Frank is no longer there. Frank rushes towards Perses' legs and attempts to knock Perses off his feet. Perses stands strong, only slightly stumbling and Frank reappears in front of Perses, hissing angrily.

I watch, waiting for an opening.

Hazel and Arion come up behind Perses quickly and Perses only just has time to register the hoofbeats and duck below Hazel's spear.

Perses turns to Hazel just to be knocked over by Frank in the form of a bear. Perses in back on his feet in an instant and drives his sword through Frank's back. Frank roars and changes back to human, falling to the ground.

Perses raises his sword again just to be kicked by Arion. I take my chance and teleport over to Frank, dragging him away.

"Sorry, sorry," I mutter every time Frank cries out.

I kneel beside Frank and my hands hover over his back. I focus my healing energy into him and the bleeding quickens. The wound slowly starts to knit itself back together. When it just finishes closing up, I hear a shout.

"Calypso!" Percy yells in warning.

I spin around and move to the side to avoid a sword to the stomach. The sword misses my stomach but goes straight through my left side, piercing me through to the hilt of his sword. I let out a strangled scream.

Perses withdraws his sword and bandhands me, sending me flying back.

I gasp when I hit the ground and my vision goes fuzzy. A few seconds later Percy appears at my side, crouching over me, his brow furrowed in worry.

"No, no, no," Percy mutters desperately. "Not again. This can't happen again."

 _Again?_ I manage to think through the haze of pain. _What does he mean by again?_

Percy disappears from my side and I gasp in pain again. _Where did he go?_

Somewhere I can hear the clashing of metal and Leo's voice. He is yelling...on my behalf?

Percy reappears above me and I squint at him.

Percy pours something on my wound and I scream through gritted teeth as the pain intensifies before settling down.

 _Nectar_.

Percy presses some ambrosia against my lips and I quickly swallow it down.

You'd want to know, the ambrosia tastes like the tacos Leo made for us on the quest. It's kind of embarrassing but my meals on Ogygia were kind of limited. They were normally made up of rabbit or deer.

I sit up slowly to see Leo stab Perses viciously in the throat. Perses dissolves in gold dust and Leo runs over to me, quickly kneeling by my side.

"I'm fine Leo," I say, weakly smiling.

"Thank the gods," Leo mutters, giving me a careful hug.

I glance around to see Annabeth finishing of the last monster. The rest of the Eight run over to me.

"Are you okay?" Frank asks.

I nod and examine my open wound.

"Someone go get some bandages," I order shakily.

Hazel runs to the infirmary and comes back a few minutes later. She and Annabeth wrap up my side carefully, and against many protests I stand weakly, heavily leaning on Leo.

A girl comes up and pulls Percy aside. Percy nods and comes back to us.

"They want us all for a meeting. The Senate want to discus our quest," Percy says.

 **-SAW**


	20. Chapter 20

**Calypso**

I was not in the mood for an OCD statue god.

But of course, the Romans wished us to be at this meeting. And to do that, I had to pass Terminus, god of borders and protector of New Rome.

"Perseus Jackson!" The statue barks. "Who are these imposters that you bring into New Rome?!"

Percy sighs. "This is Calypso, Piper and Leo. Reyna wants us for a meeting."

Terminus huffs. "Very well."

He then glares at me. "You, girl! Why is there a hole on the left of your top?!"

I sigh and pick at the red hole in my top where you can clearly see white bandages through. "I got stabbed, problem?"

Terminus huffs again. "Fine. But next time try to centre the hole. Or make one on your right side as well."

I try not to glare too hard at the statue.

"I'll keep that in mind next time I'm about to be stabbed. How's right through the heart for you? Or is that too much to the left as well?"

Terminus stares at me. "Was that attitude?"

I glare back and open my mouth to respond but Percy cuts me off. "No, of course not."

"Good," Terminus says. "Now where's my assistant? Julia! Julia!"

A six year old girl with pigtails skips over. "Yes, Mr Terminus?"

Julia spots Jason and launches herself at him. "Jason!"

Jason easily catches Julia and balances her on his hip. "Hey Julia. Have you been good for Terminus?"

Julia nods eagerly. "Yes! Look, I lost my tooth!" Julia points at a gap in her front teeth.

Jason ruffles her hair. "Did the tooth fairy come?"

"Yes! I got one den- den- den-" Julia struggles.

"One denarii?" Jason asks smoothly.

Julia nods so fast that I worry her head might fall off. "Yep!"

"Julia, go fetch the weapons tray," Terminus orders.

Jason sets Julia down and she scampers off. She comes back with a tray that already has a few golden knives, as well as a familiar silver ring.

Looks like Thalia will be there too.

Annabeth, Percy, Jason, Frank and Hazel all put their weapons in the tray.

"You have to get rid of your weapons so no one gets murdered in the meeting," Percy explains, pulling a face.

Hesitantly I pull of my necklace, the only memory I have of Zoë, and place it gently in the tray. Piper and Leo place down their daggers and we move away.

Julia giggles and hugs Jason's legs before he goes. "Bye Jasy!"

We all burst into laughter. Jason turns pink and quickly detaches the six year old from his leg.

"Shut up," Jason mutters.

"Okay, _Jasy_ ," Leo teases, making me laugh louder.

Leo grins at me, pleased, and I smirk back.

I grab Leo's arm. "Race you there?"

"But your wound-" Leo starts.

"And you've got bruised ribs," I cut in. "I'd say we're even."

Leo shrugs. "Alright."

"Okay. Three, two, one," I count down.

At one we both take off towards the big white-domed building. I run quickly, already a few steps ahead of Leo. When I reach a full metre ahead, I suddenly stop and stick out my foot. Leo comes crashing down to the ground next to me and I burst into laughter. I help Leo up and he glares half-heartedly at me.

"Let's wait for the others," I laugh.

We turn and watch the others take a steady jog towards us.

"Calypso!" Percy calls. "You shouldn't be running, your side-"

I turn and walk into the building. All the chairs in the room were already filled by senators. Reyna stands at the head of the table. Reyna tightly smiles at me when I enter, closely followed by the rest of the Eight.

We stand awkwardly at the back of the room and I wince as the pain in my side flares up. I probably shouldn't have raced Leo but being injured is already- well, boring.

Jason's right, Leo _is_ rubbing off on me.

Thalia, comes up to Percy, grinning.

"Hey Kelp Head," Thalia says, pulling Percy into a hug.

"Hey Thals," Percy replies. "How've you been?"

"Good. We've gotten a load of new Hunters."

"Quiet," Reyna orders, once everyone is in and the doors are shut.

"As this is an emergency meeting, we must skip formalities," Reyna says curtly.

"First, we must thank Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang for traveling to Alaska and freeing Thanatos-" Reyna is cut of by a ghost clearing its throat loudly.

"Letus," Reyna says loudly, glaring at the ghost.

"And we must also thank their friends, _Jason Grace_ , Piper McLean, Leo Valdez and Calypso for bringing the Greeks to help us in battle and for all helping to destroy the Titans Persaeus and Lelantos."

So I suppose Reyna went to the trouble of learning our names, then.

"Now we must discus their quest. The prophecy of Eight-" Reyna is instantly interrupted by whispers and hushed voices.

Reyna raises her voice. "It has been decreed by Lady Juno herself that these are the demigods that the prophecy spoke of."

Demigods and demi-titans, I mentally correct Reyna.

Reyna looks around. "Does anyone have anything to add?"

Reyna's tone isn't encouraging, but a scrawny, blonde boy that Percy has already identified as Octavian stands up to speak.

Percy told me about Octavian. He's a power-craving, egoistical, boy, that uses his words to cause nothing but trouble.

"And here it comes," Percy mutters.

* * *

Needless to say, the last hour wasn't fun. After a lot of arguing and yelling, the Senate finally decided to let us go in peace and agreed to fight alongside the Greeks against Gaia.

We finally walk outside and retrieve our weapons.

"Where's the Argo 2?" Leo asks.

"It's docked up there," Percy says, pointing upwards where you can see the ship about 40 metres in the air.

Leo whistles. "That's pretty high."

"Yeah," Piper agrees. "How do we get up there?"

Leo winks at me and I smirk.

"Bye!" I say, grabbing Leo's hand and teleporting us onto the Argo II.

Leo and I burst into laughter and peer over the edge where we can see the others. I think it's Percy who yells curses at us.

I laugh again and back away from the edge, heading downstairs.

Leo catches my arm, still grinning. "Where are you going?"

I can't help but smile back. "To my room. I've teleported way too much today."

I reach my room and look around the familiar scene of Ogygia. I carefully lay down on my bed, minding my side. I'm asleep in seconds.

* * *

I wake up to knocking on my door. I yawn and sit up, stretching. Immediately my side throbs and I quickly lower my left arm.

My door opens and Leo pokes his head in. "Hey. It's seven o-clock. I thought I'd better wake you for dinner, we missed a lot of meals on the quest. Sorry you only got to sleep for a few hours."

I stand up. "It's fine, Leo. What are we having?"

"Some of the deer that you killed," Leo replies, leading me towards our small dining room. Well, I say dining room. It's also our kitchen and laundry. There isn't much space for such rooms on a ship.

I laugh. "It's called venison, Leo."

"How's your side?" Leo asks, changing the subject.

"Hurts a bit," I reply. "But it's fine."

We enter the room and I sit down next to Piper. Leo sits next to me.

Percy half-heartedly glares at me. "That was not funny before, Calypso."

"Okay, dad," I mutter, earning a round of laughter from Leo.

"Yeah," Jason puts in. "Do you know how heavy two metal dragons are?"

I roll my eyes and direct my attention to a small table marching around and delivering everyone their food.

"Leo, isn't that the table that you were playing with at the Cyclopes lair?" I ask.

"Yes," Leo says proudly. "That's Buford."

Percy chokes on his drink. "A Cyclopes lair?" He coughs out.

"Yeah," Leo confirms. He pops a piece on venison into his mouth. "Hey!" Leo says. "This is really good!"

I take my plate off Buford and take a bite, "It's a bit hard. Someone overcooked it."

"Sorry," Percy interrupts. "Back to the Cyclopes lair?"

I give him an irritated look. "What about it?"

"Cyclopes are really dangerous," Percy protests.

"I know Cyclopes are dangerous," I say, calmly. "I just killed like a hundred of them."

"Though," I say, taking a sip of water. "Leo has first hand experience in how dangerous they are. He made a very interesting discovery about them."

Leo glares at me. "I thought we weren't going to bring that up?!"

"No one said anything of the sort," I say in mock surprise.

"What happened?" Frank cuts in.

Before Leo can answer, I start speaking, "I think we should both recount our quests. I'll speak for our quest first."

And so I start, pausing only to have a piece of venison or a sip of water. I start with our send off from Chrion and move onto the Cyclopes lair. I explain about the Hunters and Enceladus. I recount our friendship with Lit. I talk about the Wolf House and Khione. Finally, I finish with the battle at Camp Jupiter.

"Wow," Percy says after a long silence. He turns to Jason. "You took a poisoned arrow for Thals?"

Jason nods and Percy grins at him in gratitude. "Thanks, man. Thals is like a sister to me. It would've killed me if she died."

Percy then turns to me. "Thanks too, for Thalia."

Annabeth nudges him. "Piper and Leo, thank you as well."

Percy frowns at me. "So, what, you've killed one giant and three Titans?"

I blush. "Lit killed Enceladus. And I only killed Krios and Lelantos. Leo killed Perses and Khione, though."

"Yeah," Leo pipes up. "You mixed it up. Calypso almost got killed by Perses. Not the other way round."

I glare at Leo.

"I wish I could meet Lit," Annabeth says. "He sounds really nice."

I smile. "He's a good friend. I wish we'd had the chance to say goodbye properly."

"Everyone at Camp Half-Blood was really impressed with him," Piper says. "I think Lit will like it at camp."

"Alright," I say. "Percy, you can speak for your quest."

* * *

Half and hour later, Percy has finished his story.

I volunteer to stay behind and wash the dishes and Hazel helps me. She's really sweet when you get to know her, and I think Percy took pride in boasting about her achievements on the quest.

After I'm finished, I wander around the ship, eventually climbing up to the crows nest, like on my first night here. After a few minutes I am joined by Leo.

"Hey, Cal," Leo says cheerfully.

"Hey," I reply.

"How's your side?" Leo asks.

I lift up the side of my new top. "I think I stretched my side too much when I climbed up here. The bandages need changing," I say, looking at the blood stained bandages.

"I can do that," Leo says optimistically. "Lemme go grab some bandages."

Leo disappears down the ladder and I'm left in silence.

Leo's head appears at the top of the ladder after a few minutes. "Got the bandages!"

I look at him doubtfully. "Are you sure you can change them? I can get Annabeth or Hazel to do it."

Leo clutches at his chest. "You have such little faith in me."

I look at him.

"I got dared to spend a week helping out in the infirmary. I know my stuff."

"Alright," I say.

I start to unwind the bandage. The wound is still open but it's not gushing blood. The blade had cut right through my side. We had decided that it was best not to stitch it up because it would most likely be gone in a few days, due to ambrosia and nectar.

I'm only supposed to have a bit of nectar a day, just so I don't go up in flames. But otherwise, the wound looks okay. Well, it's covered in blood, but it should be fine.

I glance at Leo to see him turning pale.

"I though you said you'd be fine," I say smirking.

"Come on," I continue. "It's just a bit of blood."

Still no answer.

"Have you got any wipes?" I finally ask.

Leo snaps out of his stupor and hands me some wipes. I wipe away the blood around the wound but leave the dried blood that's around the edges of it. I take some nectar from Leo and pour it over the wound. Hopefully, it should close up with some nectar tomorrow.

"Can you do the bandages now?" I ask, removing the bloody wipes.

Leo nods and expertly wraps up my side.

"Thanks," I say. "We should head to bed."

Leo gestures with a flourish to the ladder. "Ladies first."

"Oh, okay," I say, grinning. "You can go, then."

Leo grins at me. " _Gracias_. _Soy muy bonita_."

I laugh. "Leo, you are not a pretty girl."

"You know Spanish?" Leo asks, heading down the ladder.

I nod, following him down. "And Italian, Morse Code and sign language."

"Cool," Leo says, reaching the bottom of the ladder with a thump. "I know sign language and Morse Code too!"

We reach my room and we both stop.

" _Buenas noches_ ," Leo says before continuing to his room.

"Goodnight," I say back.

 **-SAW**


	21. Chapter 21

**Percy**

Tonight I'm treated to a demigod dream.

Not surprising or uncommon in itself, but what really shakes me up is what- no- _who's_ in it.

There's a giant, about twelve feet tall with purple dreadlocks. He has a ten foot spear strapped to his back. He has on a black turtleneck, black pants and black leather shoes.

A goth giant, _wonderful_.

The giant is examining a giant celestial bronze jar with annoyance.

"No, no no," the giant mutters. "Otis!"

Another giant stumbles into the light of the dark... stadium?

The giant wears the exact same clothes and looks exactly the same as the other except for one difference. This giant has green hair rather than purple.

"What are you wearing?" The first giant demands.

Otis blinks dumbly. "The black turtleneck."

"I know, idiot," the first giant growls. "Why are you wearing it?! I told you _I_ was wearing the black turtleneck today! Why must you do this to me everyday?!"

There is no way in Hades that these two giants can't be twins. They look exactly the same and they treat each other in the not-so-affectionate way that siblings do.

"Sorry Ephialtes," Otis mumbles.

"Never mind!" Ephialtes says. "How are the preparations coming along?"

"Fine," Otis says grumpily. "The dragons, the lions, the hydras-"

"I know what there is, you fool!" Ephialtes says angrily.

"But this thing," Ephialtes continues, waving a hand towards the jar. "What does this do? What is it's purpose?! It just sits there!"

"But that's the whole point of this," Otis reminds Ephialtes. "The traitor dies unless the Eight arrive. And if they arrive on schedule-"

"They will be destroyed," Ephialtes finishes. "They'd better fall for the bait."

"Is _she_ ready for her visitor?" Ephialtes asks.

Otis shudders, "Oh, I don't like talking to _her_. _She_ makes me nervous."

"Yes, but is she ready?" Ephialtes asks impatiently.

"Yes, she has been ready for centuries. No one will be recovering _that_ statue."

The Giants amble off into the darkness and black spots dance across my vision. Hastily, I will my dream state forward, towards the jar.

 _I need to see what's inside._

I pass through the jar just before my vision turns completely black. I manage to catch a glimpse of the inside of the jar just before I wake up.

I bolt upright in bed, sweating profusely.

 _It couldn't be_ , I think to myself.

 _Gone_ , I think, curling my hands into fists.

"Meeting," I say to the empty room. "I need to call a meeting."

* * *

 **Calypso**

Why Percy woke us all up in the middle of the night, I do not know.

But here we all are, sitting at the dining table, watching Percy pace back and forth.

Leo's head lolls to the side in his chair and I look, unimpressed, at Percy. "If you're not going to give us a reason to be here, I'm going."

Percy looks up, panicked, " _No_! You can't go! We've got to have this meeting."

I raise an eyebrow at him and Annabeth coughs. "Calypso, wake Leo. This is obviously important."

I smirk. "With pleasure."

I stand up calmly, all eyes on me. I walk a few steps to my left, so I am behind Leo's chair. I grab Leo's chair back and pull it backwards. I step to the side as the chair tumbles over, taking Leo with it.

I sit back down.

Annabeth smiles at me, "Thank you, Calypso."

Annabeth then turns to Percy, "Explain."

Percy sits down heavily in his chair, "I was having a demigod dream. I was at this underground car park. There were two giants, Otis and Ephialtes, twins, I think. Ephialtes was looking at this giant celestial bronze jar, thing. They were talking about us. Something about 'taking the bait'. They were talking about the jar. What was inside it."

I roll my eyes. "Jackson. If you're not going to tell us what's in the jar, right now, I swear to all the gods-"

"It was Zoé," Percy says, looking at me with sorrow filled eyes. "Zoé Nightshade was in the jar. She's alive."

There's a long pause before anyone says anything. The room is filled with silence.

Silent tears begin falling down my face. "If this is a joke, Percy. I _will_ send you to Hades, right now."

"I'm not lying," Percy says quietly. "Demigod dreams are never wrong. They show you things that you don't want to see and I hate them, but it's true. Zoé's alive, and in the hands of the enemy."

My tears keep falling and I cross my arms over the table, burying my face in them. Leo lays a comforting arm around my shoulders as I allow myself to slouch, and give up the proud posture I normally hold.

"What do we do?" Jason asks after a long silence.

"We rescue her," Leo says, and I hear him shift his chair closer to mine.

"But they know we're coming," Jason points out. "They're waiting for us."

"So?" Percy says, his voice slightly breaking. "Zoé died because of me, and I'm not letting her die again. This is her second chance."

"Percy," Frank says. "As much as I hate it, Jason has a point. We'll be walking into a trap."

At this point my head shoots up.

"Are you suggesting that we leave her?" I say furiously. "That's my sister! If you for even one second, think that we are going to leave my sister to die, then you've just lost your most powerful quest member!"

I rise from my seat to leave, but Hazel, from my right, lays a hand on my arm, "No, stay."

Hazel's soft eyes look into Frank's, "Frank, as Percy just said, this is Zoé's second chance. You know my opinion on second chances."

I sit down on the edge of my seat, ready to leave if need be, "What are you talking about, Hazel?"

Hazel scans everyone around the table, carefully, "You should all know my story. Percy, Annabeth and Frank already know, I told them on the quest."

"When I was younger, my mother moved us to Alaska. She didn't tell me why, we just moved. It was okay at first, the people weren't mean and they didn't know us."

"Back where we used to live. We were widely known. But not in a good way. When I was first born, Pluto was overjoyed, he offered my mother a wish."

"My mother had always been poor. So she wished that I would bring her riches and fortunes. Pluto warned her, but the wish was made. When a gem first appeared from the ground, my mother and I were unbelievably happy. We sold it for a few hundred dollars and bought a few luxuries. At first it was fine, precious jewels kept on appearing and my mother would keep on selling them. But then people started to notice something. Whoever bought the gems seemed to have horrible accidents, they would die, or be left in hospital. Soon, no one wanted my mother's business. Witches, they called us. Then we moved."

"At night, something happened to my mother. She would change, her voice wouldn't sound like her own. She would order me around like a slave and acted strangely. She brought me to an island. The locals could never see it, they denied it's existence. There was a cave on the island. And in the cave was a pit."

"That's where I would spend my nights, sitting by the pit and trying to raise the jewels of the earth from there. The Voice told me that I had to summon something special. At first, I got nowhere. I only summoned gems and trinkets. But then something else started to rise. A giant figure, made out of precious metals and gems."

"One night, when I got home. The house was ruined and my mother gone. A message was left behind, telling me to go to the island. So I rowed to the island and went into the cave. My mother was waiting there, my mother, not the Voice. She said that she was sorry. The thing that I had been summoning, it was nearly as high as us now. At least sixteen feet. And it was moving."

"My mother said she was sorry for making me do it. She said that she had failed me. That I had to get out of there, so I would live. The Voice- Gaia had been all around us, I could sense it. My mother said that she had to sacrifice herself, that Gaia just needed a willing life for her son to awaken."

"But I couldn't let her do it. I collapsed the cave that we were in, killing both of us, as well as Gaia's son, Alcyoneus. I reappeared in the Underworld, in front of the judges. They were arguing about where to send me. They said that it wasn't my fault, it was my mother's. That I would get Elysium and my mother would go to the Fields of Punishment. I couldn't let them send her to Punishment. So they sent us both to Asphodel."

"I don't know how long I was there, but one day I saw a boy. He wasn't like the other souls in Asphodel, he knew who he was, he was alive. My brother, Nico Di Angelo helped me sneak out of the Underworld and brought me to Camp Jupiter. I'm an escapee."

Hazel's soft gaze hardens. "My point is, this is my second chance at life, and if I get a second chance, I'm not spoiling anyone else's."

And with that, Hazel stands up and gently pulls me out of the room.

"Thank you, Hazel," I say sincerely.

Hazel nods. "I would do anything if it was Nico there."

"Where are we going?" I ask, as Hazel leads me through the hallways and towards the rooms.

Hazel laughs. "To bed. Percy did get us up in the middle of the night. I'm sure they can do without us."

I laugh and bid her goodnight before heading back into my room.

* * *

The next day, I am woken by Jason.

Jason knocks loudly on the door before sticking his head in the room. "Can I come in?"

I sit up in bed and swing my legs over the side of it. "Sure?"

I grab a hairbrush and hair tie obtained from Piper and start brushing my hair into a ponytail. For the majority of the quest, I'd had my hair loose. But it was irritating and restricted my vision. Thank the gods Piper had noticed and lent me a few things.

Jason comes to sit down next to me. "I just wanted to say sorry. You helped me save my sister and I shouldn't have hesitated to do the same for you. Percy and Annabeth figured out that Zoé is being held in Rome, and we should be there in five days.."

I smile at him. "It's fine, Jason. We were _all_ tired and irritable last night."

Jason smiles and stand up. "Annabeth has called for another meeting, be up there in five."

I nod to his back. "Okay."

I change into some less crumpled clothes from Piper and adjust my necklace. Before I go to the dining room, I head to the small infirmary.

I have a few bites of ambrosia and pour nectar over my side, healing the wound completely. I smile and throw the slightly bloody bandages in the bin. I carefully prod the newly regrown skin and am satisfied when I only feel a slight tinge.

I walk into the dining room to find everyone already there.

"Sorry," I say, sitting down in my chair. "I had to go to the infirmary."

"Okay," Annabeth says, once I am seated. "Last night, Percy and I pieced together a few things about his dream."

"Otis and Ephialtes are the twin Giants born to oppose Dionysus, or Bacchus. In Percy's dream, they were talking about a statue, but not any statue, the Athena Parthenos."

I gasp loudly, but Jason and I are the only ones who register what Annabeth has said.

" _The_ Athena Parthenos? I thought it went missing?" Jason exclaims.

"It didn't go missing," I say for Annabeth. "The Romans stole it."

"What do you mean?" Hazel asks softly.

"The Athena Parthenos is the statue of Athena. When the Romans started seeing the gods in their Roman forms, they degraded Athena to Minerva, minor goddess of craft. The Romans had their own war gods and they changed her from a major goddess of war, to a minor goddess. To mock her even more, they stole the Athena Parthenos. Since then, Athena and her children have never forgiven the Romans," I say seriously.

Annabeth pales even further. "Before we went to Ogygia, I saw my mother. She was different, I think she was Minerva. She gave me a coin, and said that it would guide me. She said to follow the Mark of Athena."

"The Mark of Athena is a quest that only the strongest of Athena's children go on. Not one has come back alive yet, if Annabeth has been chosen to complete the quest-" I trail off.

"But Annabeth is the strongest child of Athena ever," Percy says fiercely. "If anyone can do it, it's Annabeth."

I nod and Piper speaks up, "I agree with Percy. Annabeth can do it. But where does the quest start? We don't even have a prophecy."

Annabeth shifts in her chair. "Actually, we do. Ella gave it to us."

" _Twins snuff out the Hunter's breath,_

 _Who holds the key to endless death._

 _The Giants' bane stands tall and pale,_

 _Won through pain and a woven jail_."

I clap my hands together to get everyone's attention, "Great, now we _have_ to save Zoé. Couldn't you have brought up the prophecy last night?"

They all look at me in confusion.

" _Twins snuff out the Hunter's breath_ ," I quote. " _Who holds the key to endless death_. We need Zoé to make sure the monsters can't escape Tartarus."

"But she isn't part of the quest," Leo says in confusion.

I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. "She could be. The prophecy said the _gifted of fire_ , it didn't say its one person. My sister and I were _both_ blessed by Hestia. Zoé _could_ be part of the prophecy."

"So, it's agreed then?" Percy asks. "When we get to Rome, we need to send Annabeth off on her quest and save Zoé."

 **-Stars**


	22. Chapter 22

**Calypso**

The last four days have been eventless.

Other than the occasional attack on the ship, nothing has happened. The only thing remotely interesting that has happened would be Leo and I's talks at the crows nest every night.

This is the day that we are supposed to arrive in Rome. Leo had assured me last night that we would arrive early in the morning and we'd have plenty of time to look for Zoë.

Sure enough, when I walk onto the deck, Leo greets me with a, "Welcome to Rome!"

I join him at the helm and offer him a muffin that I had picked up from the dining room, munching on my own one.

Leo immediately takes a big bite of his muffin.

"Thanks, Cal," Leo says, his voice muffled from the food.

"Where are we going?" I ask, watching the minuscule people below bustling around.

"I'm trying to find a park or a hill or something, so we can land," Leo answers.

I nod, absentmindedly brushing some crumbs off my chin. "We should call another meeting before Annabeth goes on her quest."

Leo shrugs. "You're the boss."

* * *

Half an hour later, we are all assembled at the helm where Leo can continue to steer the ship.

"We need to split into two groups," I say decisively.

"Piper have you seen anything in your dagger?" Annabeth asks.

Piper has this dagger called Katoptris. It means looking glass. Piper has been seeing these visions from it. It's previous owner was Helen of Troy and I'm pretty sure that she went crazy in the end. You could say I'm a little apprehensive about Piper using it.

"Yeah," Piper nods. "I keep on seeing the seven of us going through these really dark tunnels. I think they're underground. Then I see us fighting the twin Giants and the jar that Percy mentioned."

Annabeth and Percy both pale.

"What is it?" I ask them. "Annabeth?"

"OUr third quest," Annabeth says quietly. "The labyrinth."

The room goes quiet and the air thickens.

"The labyrinth?" Piper chokes out.

"I thought it collapsed?" Percy asks.

"Wait," Hazel says. "It might not be the labyrinth. Rome is littered with tunnels." Hazel closes her eyes briefly, "I can sense it."

"Great," Frank says. "Can you lead us through them?"

"I think so," Hazel answers.

"Okay," I say. "Annabeth, do you know where to go?"

Annabeth nods. "Yes, I-"

"I'm going with her," Percy interrupts.

Percy sees the look on Annabeth's face. "At least until she starts the quest."

Annabeth glares at him. "Percy, I have to do this by myself. I won't be able to do it if you're there. This is a quest for the _children of Athena_ , not her rival's son."

Percy deflates a bit.

"Percy," I say. "As much as I hate to say it, Annabeth is right. This is something she has to do on her own."

"Besides," I add. "We need everyone we can get if we're fighting two giants."

Percy nods reluctantly and Annabeth pecks him on the cheek.

Just then the ship lands with a soft bump. We're in a large grassy field with a restaurant in the distance. There are a few people milling around but no one takes notice of our ship.

"If anyone needs to grab anything, go get it now," I order before running off to my own room.

I grab my bag and head over to the infirmary. I grab a few pieces of ambrosia and a flask of nectar. I sling the bag over my shoulder and go back to the deck. I climb halfway down the ladder before jumping the last few steps easily. Only Percy and Annabeth are there.

"Annabeth," I say gently. "You should head off now."

Annabeth nods and she and Percy share one more kiss.

"Good luck," Percy murmurs.

"Don't die," Annabeth whispers back.

Annabeth then takes a step back from Percy and turns her back to him. She jogs away into the distance. Not once does she look back.

I lay a hand on Percy's arm. "Annabeth will be fine. Don't doubt her."

Percy sighs before smiling. "You're right. She'd kick my butt if she thought I was doubting her."

Soon, everyone is outside with us.

"Do we just leave the ship here?" Leo asks doubtfully.

"Who do you think's going to steal it?" I counter. "Festus won't listen to anyone besides the eight of us anyway."

Leo nods and pats the hull of the ship before turning to Hazel. "Can you do your magic and find us a secret passageway?"

Hazel nods and closes her eyes. She stomps her foot lightly on the ground and the earth opens up beside us, leaving a straight drop down. I edge towards the hole and peer downwards, all I can see is darkness.

I glance at Hazel. "Are you sure this is safe? The earth is Gaia's domain."

Piper answers for her. "Don't worry. I've seen us fighting the Giants. We at least make it to them in one piece. After that, though..."

" _Thanks_ , Piper," Leo says sarcastically. "That _really_ reassures me!"

"How deep is it?" I ask no one in particular.

"Forty metres," Hazel answers. "It's pretty far down."

I glance over at Jason. "Can you go first with Piper and cushion our falls?"

Jason nods. "Sure."

Jason hugs Piper close and they step into the hole.

Leo peers into the hole as they fall. "Ew. I think they're kissing."

We wait a minute before we do anything.

"Who wants to go next?" Leo asks, still peering into the darkness of the pit.

I walk forward confidently. I make a big show of kneeling down beside the pit and peering down it. I stand up and brush off my hands.

Then I push Leo down the forty metre pit.

I can hear him screaming and cursing at me as he falls and I look at an openly laughing Hazel and Frank, smirking in triumph.

I mock salute them before diving into the hole after Leo. It doesn't take long before I catch up with Leo. One of his flailing arms nearly hits me in the face and I grab him and spin him so his feet are facing downwards.

"Just because Jason will cushion our fall, doesn't mean that it won't hurt when you land on your head!" I yell over the whistling in my ears.

"That was _not_ cool, Calypso!" Leo yells. "Not cool _at all_!"

Soon I feel us slowing down and I spot the ground. We slow down even further, until it's just a small jolt when we land.

"Hey," I say in acknowledgement to Piper and Jason.

"Sorry about the screaming," I say, slightly smirking again.

"Was that you or Leo?" Jason asks, grinning.

"Leo," I reply.

Leo looks around the area quickly. "Oh, look. I think Hazel, Percy and Frank are coming down."

Piper snickers loudly and Jason throws up his arms to slow Frank, Percy and Hazel's fall.

They land softly beside us.

"Do you know if Vindex and Venator are coming down?" Piper asks quickly.

Frank looks at her in annoyance. "Piper, I can speak Chinese, not dragon."

I look up to see if I can see any signs of the two dragons.

"Piper," I say. "Whistle for them."

Piper gives a loud piercing whistle and after a few seconds, Venator and Vindex bound out of the tunnel we are supposed to be taking.

"How did they do that?" Jason asks in awe.

Piper strokes Vindex. "I'm not sure. But I guess this means we don't have to teleport with them anymore."

Leo starts to look interested. "Piper, do you mind if I take a look at them when we get back to the ship? I might be able to make them faster or stronger or something."

"Or you just want to figure out how they work," I say sarcastically.

"Piper?" Leo pleads.

"Um, okay, I guess," Piper says uncertainly.

"Big mistake," I mutter under my breath, making Piper look more worried.

"Let's get going," Frank says, looking with apprehension at the dark tunnel.

"Hazel," I say. "Lead the way."

A small ball of flame appears in my cupped hand as I follow Hazel. Behind me, Leo does the same and joins me at the front of our small party.

We walk in complete silence. Many times we path crossroads or other paths, but Hazel takes us confidently through each bend and intersection.

Frank soon comes to the front and walks side by side with Hazel. He slips his hand into Hazel's.

Leo groans loudly. "Really, Frank? This quest has _way_ too many couples in it without you two together as well!"

I hadn't known about Frank and Hazel's relationship before now either. You may think we're overreacting and that they're just holding hands, but the blushes on their faces say it all.

"Ignore Leo," Piper instructs Hazel. "I think it's great."

Frank and Hazel walk faster and Leo and I follow them, laughing.

Well that's until a tunnel opens up next to us and monsters start pouring out of it. They are lead by the Titan Hyperion, who is giving off a distinct glow.

The monsters split our group in half, Percy, Piper and Jason on one side and Frank, Hazel, Leo and I on the other side.

Percy, Piper and Jason draw their weapons immediately and start to retreat back down the tunnel.

I send a quick burst of fire at a nearby group of empousa and duck beneath an arrow.

"Go!" Percy yells. "Find Zoë. We've got this!"

"Vena! Dex!" Piper yells over the monsters. "Go to Calypso!"

The two golden dragons bound towards us, destroying any monsters in their way.

"Hazel," I say in a shaky voice as Venator and Vindex reach us. "Collapse the tunnel behind us."

I start dragging them backwards as the monsters start to take notice of us.

"Calypso-" Hazel starts anxiously.

"Just do it," I order. "Block us off, but make sure you get a good bit of the army too."

Hazel hesitates before raising her foot and stomping on the ground. The tunnel rumbles and the ceiling in front of us starts to collapse.

I grab Leo's hand and drag him away in a run. I glance back to see Hazel and Frank right on our tails. Venator and Vindex speed ahead of us. Eventually, the ceiling stops falling and we slow down.

"We passed other ways, right?" I ask Hazel. "Other ways to get to Zoë?"

Hazel nods weakly. "There were a few, but I took the most direct path. One of the turns we were supposed to take was back there," Hazel gestures to the rubble. "There's another route, but it isn't as safe and it take longer."

"That's fine. That means Percy, Piper and Jason can find their way to us, however long it may take. Let's keep going, they'll be fine."

I take a few steps forward, through the only path there is.

I glance back. "Hazel?"

Hazel slowly starts leading the way again. After five minutes, we come to a set of doors.

The doors are constructed from imperial gold with a large bronze sphere right in the centre. The sphere is made up of five rings, each engraved with different symbols.

Hazel looks back at us. "This is where things might get dangerous. I can't see what's inside it."

"Can we go any other way?" Leo asks hopefully. "You know, one that doesn't end with us dying painfully?"

As usual, we all ignore Leo.

"Alright," I say. "Is the door locked?"

Frank rattles the door handle, but it stays firmly locked.

"Yeah," Frank says in answer.

I come closer the the door and examine the lock.

"It's not a key lock," I speculate. "It's some sort of combination lock. It's got to do with the sphere."

"Wait a second," Leo says pointing at something on the sphere. "Is that Greek?"

"Yeah," I say, looking at the sphere more closely. "Greek numbers from zero to nine."

Leo starts fiddling with the numbers and turning them at random.

"Stop!" I order. "You'll probably blow us all up."

Leo steps away from the door momentarily before a thoughtful look comes over his face.

"Wait a second," Leo says, stepping back up to the door. "I've got an idea."

I move to the side so I can see what he's doing.

5,1,4,1,3.

The door clicks and Leo swings it open.

I look at Leo in shock. "How did you do that?"

Leo grins smugly. "Think, Calypso. Spheres, Greek mythology."

I raise an eyebrow at him sarcastically.

" _Archimedes_! I used the first five numbers of Pi." Leo says like its obvious.

"Wasn't he a son of Hephaestus?" I ask, walking into the room.

The room has celestial bronze workbenches everywhere and tools strewn on top of them. On one table in the centre of the room is a dozen bronze and gold spheres. To the left is a short corridor with a room on the end. Everything is covered with a thick layer of dust.

"Not just any son of Hephaestus!" Leo proclaims. "The greatest son of Hephaestus in the history of demigods! He invented spheres!"

"Um, Leo," Hazel says wandering towards the table of metal basketballs. "What's so special about these spheres?"

"They're awesome!" Leo says excitedly. "I'll show you how they work!"

That's when I notice the thin string connected to each table and each sphere. And of course, the four automatons positioned around the exits of the room.

"Leo-" I start to say, but it's too late.

Leo has reached for one of the spheres. As he grabs it, the fragile string breaks. I hear a half a dozen screeches of metal and clanks as the automations all stand up at once.

"Well," Leo says quietly, facing the automations. "There's your danger, Hazel."

As soon as Leo's finished speaking, two bronze cables shoot from two of the automations- one with a broken helmet and one with a wolf head- and connect with Hazel and Frank's backs. They both convulse once before collapsing to the floor, unconscious.

I summon a knife and knock an oncoming cable out of the air, taking care not to hit the top of it. I take one last despairing look at Hazel and Frank's bodies before grabbing Leo and rushing down the short corridor. Vindex and Venator attack the automatioms while we run.

I shove Leo into the room at the end of the corridor and he trips and falls to the floor. Leo scrambles to his feet just to look at me in horror.

Suddenly something connects with my lower back and I feel a sharp electrical shock. I jolt forward and collapse to the ground. The cable shocks me again and I convulse on the floor. Everything goes black.

 **-SAW**


	23. Chapter 23

**Leo**

I am so screwed.

I grab Calypso's body and drag her inside. I slam the door shut, bolting it, and lean against it, breathing heavily.

I take in my surroundings quickly. There is a table in the centre of the dusty room with a deconstructed Archimedes sphere. There is a barred window that shows the main room.

I rush over to the window and stare through it. Hazel and Frank's bodies are lying practically on top of each other, Vindex and Venator are also slumped on the ground.

So that's our dragon boy, witch girl and guard dogs out of the picture. That leaves me. And like, half of Calypso.

I scan the room for automations. One dog-like robot? Check. One armless human robot? Check. One human robot with a frog head? Check. One bull-like robot? Check. One robot with a broken helmet? Check. One robot with a wolf head? Wait, where'd he go?

"Valdez!" Wolf Head suddenly appears on the other side of the window. "Open the door!"

I jump back and grin at the robot. "Nah, I'm good right here."

Wolf Head disappears from the window and reappears at the top of the door where there is a meshed window.

"Valdez!" Wolf Head howls, pounding at the door. "Let us in!"

I focus on the Archimedes sphere and examine all of the different disassembled parts around it.

"Genius," I mutter as I start to reconnect some of the wiring.

Calypso groans from behind me and I rush over to her, completely neglecting the sphere.

"Holy Hephaestus, Calypso. Thank the gods you're okay!" I rush, helping her sit up. "How do you feel?"

Calypso groans again. "Like a robot with a wolf head just tried to shock me to death. Oh wait, that _did_ happen!"

I grin and hug her. "So you're okay!"

"I guess so. Where is Hazel and Frank?" Calypso asks.

"Valdez! We will kill your friends!" Wolf Head bellows from behind the door.

"That's where," I mutter, pulling Calypso onto her feet.

Calypso immediately unsteadily walks to the window. I join her just in time to see Hazel and Frank's bodies jerk again from two bronze cable connecting with them.

I rush back to the table and continue fixing the Archimedes sphere.

"What are you doing?!" Calypso asks weakly. "We need to go help Frank and Hazel!"

"Calypso," I say seriously. "Those are automations created by Archimedes himself. They are a combination of imperial gold and celestial bronze. Very difficult to forge, and nearly impossible to even dent. Our weapons won't do anything to them."

"What about fire?" Calypso asks, her hand briefly lighting up with a small flame.

"They're fireproof," I say, focusing on the sphere.

" _Valdez_!"

"Leo?" Calypso says in an unfamiliar tone.

I turn around and look at her closely. That's when I realise, she's scared.

"What do we do?" Calypso asks in that same scared tone.

I try to grin reassuringly at her. "Don't worry. You see this? This is the Archimedes sphere that controls the whole place. I can use the house/room thingy against them."

Calypso smiles in relief, but I'm not focused on her. Behind her Hazel and Frank's bodies jolt again and I have to blink away tears. Calypso catches my glance and turns around just in time to see Hazel and Frank being shocked.

"No!" Calypso yells.

Calypso disappears in a flash of light, but even that seems weak. She reappears next to Hazel and Frank and attempts to stab Wolf Head in his wolf head.

Her knife glances off the automation, thankfully not breaking, and Wolf Head's friend, Broken Helm, shoots a cable at Calypso.

For the second time in five minutes, Calypso collapses to the ground, unconscious.

" _Calypso_!" I yell uselessly.

It's up to me now.

I turn back to the Archimedes sphere, my hands now flying over the wiring, reconnecting wires and replacing screws.

I curse as the sphere gives off a few sparks and quickly fix my mistake.

Finally I get up to the final calibrations. I fix the last spring and the gears start to turn. I quickly close the top of the sphere and stare at the controls.

The second the sphere closes, the bunker hums to life. I can feel the floor buzzing beneath me and a few unnoticeable lights in the main room flicker on.

The sphere itself is wired through the table and then to the floor, in order to control this bunker-like place.

I grab the sphere and walk as close to the window as the wire allows me. I start small, focusing on a small gold sphere in the corner of the room.

Typically, it explodes.

Calypso, Hazel and Frank jerk uncontrollably again and I curse myself. There's no time to start small.

This in mind, I focus Broken Helm and try to get him to take a step forward.

Broken Helm takes a jerky step forward but whatever Broken Helm really is, fights against it.

I turn a circle on the sphere and Broken Helm becomes easier to control.

He immediately spins to two of his comrades and sends a cable at both of them.

I press a button and the electricity immediately drops the two automations.

"Boo-yah!" I yell, pumping a fist in the air.

Only Frog Head, Armless Hobo, Wolf Head and the guy I'm controlling left.

"What are you doing?!" Wolf Head wails at Broken Helm.

"It's not me!" Broken Helm wails back.

Wolf Head opens its robotic mouth only to be silenced by Broken Helm launching itself at him.

I split the sphere into two tasks, one on controlling Broken Helm and the other on frying Armless Hobo's metallic brain out.

Armless Hobo wails once before crumpling to the floor, catching Frog Head on his way down.

Frog Head desperately tries to free himself from under the inanimate automation but fails as I fry the circuiting in its head.

Wolf Head suddenly becomes No-Longer Wolf Head as with a final clang, Broken Helm punches Wolf Head's wolf head off and onto the floor.

I then kill the remaining automation.

"Yes!" I shout, dropping the sphere and rushing out of the room and towards Calypso.

I drop to my knees beside her and reach to touch her face.

 _Zap!_ I immediately recoil, grabbing my hand in my other hand.

Calypso stirs weakly and her eyes flutter open.

"Cal!" I say happily. "I would so hug you right now if I wouldn't get shocked!"

Calypso sits up. "What happened?"

"The evil robots tried to restart your heart when it was perfectly fine," I say, grinning.

"Hazel and Frank?" Calypso asks.

I turn around so that I'm facing Hazel and Frank. "I think they're alive."

As if on cue, Frank groans loudly and Hazel's eyes open.

Hazel sits up quickly and presses a hand to her head. "Ugh. I feel awful."

"Of course you do," I say cheerfully. "I think you might've died slightly."

Calypso rolls her eyes and explains what she knows to Hazel and Frank.

"But I'm not sure what happened after that," Calypso finishes, turning to me.

"I fixed the Archimedes sphere and destroyed the automations brains," I summarise quickly.

I walk over to the table and stuff a few Archimedes spheres in my tool belt. "I wish I could've salvaged some of that metal, though."

I kneel beside Vindex and Venator and fiddle with their control disks. They stand up robotically and I grin in triumph.

"So, where to now?" I ask Hazel.

Hazel points to a wall and an archway opens up. "Just through there."

I pull Calypso up and offer her my arm. "Shall we, my lady?"

Calypso punches me in the arm. "Shut up, Valdez."

Calypso turns to Frank. "Before we go..."

Calypso summons her bow and Frank takes a nervous step back.

Calypso waves a hand over the bow and three green tipped arrows and four red tipped arrows appear. She hands them to Frank.

"The red arrows are explosive and the green ones act as nets. Use them sparingly," Calypso says seriously.

"How come you guys get all the cool powers and weapons?" I complain. "All I get is a dagger and a tool belt!"

"Valdez," Calypso glares at me. "If you keep complaining, you won't even have a dagger."

I gulp. "Never mind. Let's go."

* * *

We emerge into a giant car park.

Or a zoo.

Or possibly an evil Giants' lair.

Nah, definitely a zoo.

I look over at Calypso. "Does this sound like the place from Percy's dream?"

Calypso answers by pointing at the giant celestial bronze jar in the middle of the room.

"I guess that gives it away, doesn't it?" I say, not really expecting an answer.

"Do we just-?" Hazel trails off.

Calypso starts towards the jar. "We've got no choice."

"We've got to save Zoé," I finish, picking my way through the cable on the floor.

I keep an eye out for traps, but in this mess, anything could be a trap. Hades, I won't be surprised if that giant statue with the snake feet and green dreadlocks tries to eat us. Wait, what?

"Calypso!" I yelp, grabbing onto her arm. "Giant!"

The giant, taking his cue, steps out of the darkness and towards us.

"At last!" He bellows. "I thought you'd never arrive! I was beginning to think that Archimedes' automations had killed you!"

"Who exactly are you?" I ask.

The giant turns his head to me. "Ephialtes, of course!"

"Oh, _Ephialtes_ ," I say. "Of course it's you! How could I forget?!"

" _Leo_ ," Calypso says warningly.

"You're just in time for the main event!" Ephialtes continues happily. "Otis! Where are you?!"

An elbow hits me roughly in the back and I spin around to see another giant twenty away behind us.

It would be terrifying, but Otis is dressed as a ballerina. But not just any ballerina, the world's most grumpy ballerina!

Otis is wearing a skin-tight pink leotard with a matching fluffy pink skirt. His ballet shoes are cut at the toes so his snake-thingys can breath. A ten foot spear is strapped to his back, but he still manages a curtesy.

I applaud loudly. " _Very_ manly. Absolutely terrifying!"

" _Leo_!" Calypso hisses again, grabbing my arm tightly.

"Let Zoë go!" Calypso orders, drawing the attention away from me.

"The traitor?" Ephialtes says, striding over to the jar and unscrewing the lid.

He tips a black-haired girl in a silver uniform out onto the floor, where she lies limply.

I hear Calypso sharply inhale and I assume that this must be Zoë.

Ephialtes' foot crashes down beside Zoë as he peers down at her, "I don't know if she will live much longer."

"But never mind her," Ephialtes says, moving away from Zoë. "The show is almost about to start, everything is all set!"

Calypso's hand twitches towards her neck but she stops herself, "What show?"

"The destruction of Rome!" Otis grins at her. "We've got everything planned out, the man-eating tigers, the poisonous snakes, the-"

"Fool!" Ephialtes hisses at his brother. "Don't tell her what we're doing!"

Otis looks like a deer in headlights. "I was just explaining the-"

Ephialtes cuts his off with a wave of his hand. "It doesn't matter!"

Ephialtes strides over to a giant control panel and leers at us. "Which should we start with, demigods? Blowing up the Spanish Steps? The drakon? The flesh-eating horses?"

"How about none of them?" I ask hopefully.

Ephialtes glares at me and I quickly change my answer. "Or what about some rainbow unicorns? Or some cute and fluffy kittens? That would be _terrifying_."

Otis glares at Ephialtes. "I told you we should've gotten the unicorns!"

Ephialtes glares back at Otis. "No! They're not scary enough!"

Between the arguing giants, Zoë stirs slightly.

"Or maybe some ballerinas," Hazel suggests, catching on.

Otis starts towards Ephialtes. " _See_?! I told you so!"

While the Giants are distracted, I edge towards Zoë.

I grab Calypso by the arm again. "Don't teleport, it will get too much attention."

Calypso nods and takes a few more steps towards her sister.

"Stop this nonsense!" Ephialtes bellows at his brother.

Otis keeps on advancing towards Ephialtes. "I told you ballerinas were terrifying! _They_ think so! Don't you, demig-" Otis turns towards us and trails off. "Ephialtes! They're getting to the girl!"

Ephialtes turns to us and his eyes zero in on Calypso, who is the closest to Zoë.

"Bah!" Ephialtes yells, drawing his spear.

I grab my dagger, which looks tiny in comparison to Ephialtes' spear. "It was worth a shot."

"Hazel?" Calypso says. "Protect Zoë."

"You got it," Hazel says, her eyes fixed on the advancing Giants.

"Leo, Frank?" Calypso asks.

"Don't worry," I say, secretly thinking that it is very worrying if she _isn't_ worrying.

"We've got your back," Frank agrees.

And then we charge.

 **-SAW**


	24. Chapter 24

**Piper**

It's always a reassuring thought as you're drowning that your pet dragons aren't there as well.

Well, that's what I'm thinking as we come closer and closer to the ceiling. Treading the murky, poisonous water that is filling the nymphaeum.

We killed the army easily, they were forced to come at in waves, because of the cramped tunnels. Hyperion fled when it became clear that he wasn't going to win the battle.

Then we ended up here, courtesy of Hagno, the nymph.

I already can feel my energy sapping and I can see the weariness in Jason and Percy's eyes too.

"How ironic," Percy coughs out. "The son of Poseidon, drowning."

"Shut up Percy," I say, using a small bit of charmspeak. "You're not going to die."

Percy looks at me tiredly as he starts to sink. Percy catches himself and kicks harder, managing to get himself at a reasonable height in the water.

I hear cackling in the background.

"Stupid nymphs," Jason says weakly.

"Couldn't they at least not let their stupid laughing be the soundtrack to our deaths?" Percy agrees.

"Stop whining," I order. "I'm trying to think of a way out."

I pause in my train of thought, "Jason, have you got any nectar?"

Jason fumbles weakly at the bag on his back and I swim behind him. I unzip the bag and pull out two flasks of nectar.

"Thank the gods," I say gratefully.

Percy and Jason exchange confused looks, not knowing what I'm talking about.

"Percy can you control liquids other than water?" I ask carefully.

This is the vital part of my plan. If Percy can't do this, we're all doomed.

"I'm not sure," Percy says nervously. "I could try. Not this stuff, though, I've already tried. Why?"

"Nectar is the drink of the gods. It's holy and pure," I explain, fumbling to unscrew one of the flasks' lids.

"And if you can control it and spread it throughout all of the water, it should purify it," I say, carefully gauging their reactions.

Jason weakly grabs my hand, his fingers cold and unfeeling, "Great idea, Pipes."

"Yeah," Percy agrees. "If I can pull this off."

I flash a smile at him, "Just don't mess up."

"Start by just keeping the nectar in the air," Jason suggests.

Percy nods at me and I tip some of the nectar into the air.

I hold my breath as the drink of the gods starts to fall, but after a second it jolts back up and Percy gives me a pained grin.

I pour the rest of the nectar out quickly and uncap the other flask. On Percy's cue, I pour that out as well.

I glance over at Jason as he gives my hand a squeeze.

Jason's face is steadily paling and his kicks are becoming sluggish.

"Percy!" I say urgently. "Hurry it up!"

The nectar spreads into a thin layer on top of the water. Percy's screws up his face in concentration, a bead of sweat falling down his face.

I give Percy a nod and the nectar plunges into the water, somehow retaining its form.

As I watch, the nectar goes further into the water, leaving clean and glistening water in its wake.

Soon I can clearly see the bottom of the nymphaeum. The second I can clearly see it, a drain opens up directly below me, and the water begins to disappear rapidly.

Suddenly, the pull downwards feels greater than ever.

"Don't let yourself be pulled down," Percy warns. "We're gonna be feeling the pull badly in a few seconds. So make sure you stay above the water."

"Right, stay above the water," Jason murmurs distantly before he starts to sink.

"Percy!" I yelp as I get pulled down by Jason's weight.

"On it," Percy replies, grabbing me and Jason by the arms.

A large bubble of air appears around us and we float gently to the bottom of the water.

Percy places a hand on Jason's chest and Jason coughs up a small amount of water.

Jason sits up and his hand immediately goes to his pocket, "What's Hago doing here?"

I spin around to find Hagno standing there calmly.

But she looks different. No longer like a Hago. She is younger and beautiful. Much like the eight nymphs behind her, she wears a blue gown.

"Hagno?" I question, my own hand drifting to rest on my dagger hilt.

"My dear," Hagno says, her voice now clear and beautiful. "You have cleansed us. Freed us."

"Um," Percy says. "Okay?"

Hagno smiles at him, "My sisters and I will seek new homes now. Perhaps a mountain stream, or a lake."

I decide not to tell her about how much the world has changed in the last few thousand years.

Hagno points at a wall and a tunnel appears, "That is the way to the Giants. You must hurry, your friends are in need of your aid. The daughter of Athena will soon be dead without your help."

The nymph smiles once more before she vaporises, leaving behind only a trail of water vapour.

"That was unexpected," Jason says, standing up.

"Agreed," I say.

Percy turns towards the doorway, "Well, we'd better go save our friends' butts."

* * *

It takes us fifteen minutes of stumbling down different paths before we come to the bunker.

The door is wide open when we walk through. Around the room are at least five automations crumpled on the floor. The room is dimly lit by a few weak lights and the floor gives off a dull hum of energy.

"Look," Jason says, kneeling down to the floor.

Everything in the room is covered with a thin layer of dust. Everything but the floor that Jason is kneeling next to. There is one shape that must be a human and a larger shape that looks like two humans closely combined.

"Do you reckon Calypso, Leo, Hazel and Frank were here?" Percy asks.

"Maybe," I say, drifting towards the table in the middle of the room.

Something catches my eye and I quickly go towards it. I examine the broken piece of string carefully, following it's path with my eyes.

"I think they activated some sort of trap," I say thoughtfully. "This was connected to this metal basketball thing, it seems like the sort of thing that Leo wouldn't be able to keep his hands off."

"But where are they?" Jason wonders.

There are two obvious options. They escaped and are on their way to face the Giants. Or they were captured and are being brought to the Giants.

I voice my thoughts and Jason nods, "We've got to get to the Giants."

I turn to the only other exit from the room other than the door, "They must've gone this way."

Jason flips his coin into the air and catches it as a sword. He moves towards the tunnel and then turns back to us, "Are you coming?"

I unsheathe my dagger, "Let's go giant hunting "

* * *

The tunnel is shorter than any of the previous ones, and it only goes in one direction. It takes a while until we see a dim light at the end of the tunnel, just after a corner.

I rush towards the opening and Jason and Percy's footsteps follow me.

Already, I can hear the clashing of metal.

I emerge from the tunnel and survey the gigantic area I am in.

I immediately spot the two Giants. Leo and Frank are fighting Otis together while Calypso is fighting Ephialtes by herself ten metres to their left.

I scan the room for Hazel and I spot her dragging a black-haired girl in silver clothing behind a giant crate.

 _Zoé_.

I look at Percy and Jason quickly before running towards Otis and Ephialtes, "Come on!"

Calypso is my first concern. She is clearly having trouble fighting the stronger of the Giants by herself and seems to be tiring.

The spear catches Calypso in the chest and sends her flying backwards.

Ephialtes roars in triumph and rushes forward but before he can deliver the final blow to Calypso, I'm there in her place, swiping at his legs with Katoptris.

"Gah!" Ephialtes growls, stumbling back. "What is this?!"

I hold the giant's gaze, "My name is Piper, and _you_ just attacked my friend."

I charge towards Ephialtes, rolling beneath a sweeping strike and continuing to run without breaking stride. I dive to the side as Ephialtes drives his sword into the spot where I had previously been occupying, and perform another roll to stop myself from hitting the ground. I stab my dagger into Ephialtes' left leg and quickly move out of the way of the stumbling giant.

Calypso reappears at my side, looking slighting winded.

"Hey," Calypso says, shifting from foot to foot, ready to move out of the way of any strikes. "Did you get Hyperion?"

"No," I reply as Ephialtes advances. "He disappeared when most of his army was killed."

"Shame," Calypso sighs, her eyes on the incoming Giant. "We had a little _argument_ before. At least now I can be the one to kill him."

I decide that there's no point in waiting for Ephialtes to come to us and I change him, wielding Katoptris with a wild ferocity. I slash at his right leg, gaining a deep gash and a howl of pain. I try to slash at his other leg but a spear closely sinks into the ground a few inches away from me and I attempt to back away.

Take note: _attempt_.

Ephialtes kicks me in the chest and my dagger goes flying, but where I normally would have gone flying back, due to a small crate, my legs get caught and I fall to the ground only a few feet away from Ephialtes.

Ephialtes levels his spear at my chest and my hand scrambles around in the dirt, trying to find Katoptris while I keep my eyes on the spear.

"Piper!" I hear, and Jason flys over my head and impales Ephialtes in the stomach with his sword. Ephialtes roars in pain and stumbles back.

I look around quickly and snatch up my dagger. Jason lands beside me and holds out his hand. I take it and he pulls me up.

"Thanks Jason," I say, smiling.

"Watch out," Calypso warns, coming to stand beside us as Ephialtes strides towards us.

"What is your plan, demigods? You cannot defeat me without the aid of a god," Ephialtes leers, pulling out the sword from his stomach and throwing it away.

Ephialtes is right. Without the help of a god, we're doomed.

"You ha-" Ephialtes is suddenly blasted onto his back with a stream of black energy. The room gets colder and darker.

I look around in confusion, but Calypso wastes no time and sprints forward. Calypso reaches the unconscious giant's head and raises her knives, impaling both in Ephialtes' head.

Finally my eyes land on where the energy blast came from. A pale man with pure black eyes is regarding the disintegrating giant with distaste. He is holding a tall staff and is wearing black robes.

Risking getting killed by the strange man, I quickly look to where Frank, Leo, Percy and Hazel had been fighting. Percy waves at me as he, Frank and Leo walk towards us, and other than a few scrapes, they seem to be unharmed. Behind them I can see Hazel with her arm around Zoé, helping her limp towards us.

They reach us and Hazel bows to the man, "Father."

I let out a quiet gasp and Jason, Leo, Frank and I follow Hazel's example, Percy grudgingly bowing too.

Calypso merely nods her head in respect, "Pluto."

Zoé and Calypso smile at each other but I can tell they know it's not the time for their reunion.

Pluto looks at each of us, his face blank but his eyes glaring. Pluto's gaze hover a little longer on Percy and his glare intensifies before he moves on. Pluto's eyes soften when they come to Hazel.

"You may rise," Pluto says.

After a long silence, Pluto addresses Calypso first, "Diana wishes me to tell you that she can no longer aid your quest. Jupiter was rather... _upset_ about the Wolf House."

"Thank you," Calypso says.

Pluto turns to Hazel, "My daughter. I would like a word." His gaze turns to us, "If you would excuse us."

Pluto doesn't need to ask twice.

After checking with Hazel, Calypso takes Zoé from her and walks away without looking back. The rest of us don't hesitate to follow her.

Calypso and Zoé hug briefly and exchange a flurry of words.

We give them some privacy too.

After a while, Calypso and Zoé join us, Zoé no longer sporting her previous limp. Hazel glances at us and says something to Pluto. Pluto nods and gives her a quick hug, which gains many shocked looks, before melting into the shadows.

Hazel comes over to us with blotchy eyes but a radiant smile.

"Dad said to try the Emmanuel Building carpark. And something about _breaking through_ ," Hazel says, still smiling happily.

"Wonderful," Calypso says. "Leo, did you work on that ballistae I told you to make?"

 **-Stars**


	25. Chapter 25

**Calypso**

It took us five hours to get there.

Or at least that's what it felt like. In reality it probably took us half an hour, but I've been waiting on the deck with my bag, next to Leo for twenty five minutes.

We all have.

Eventually, Zoé and I go off to one side to talk.

"So, what happened while you were in the jar? Could you hear anything?" I ask Zoé.

Zoé nods and slightly pales, "The Doors of Death are in Epirus."

I frown, "Are you sure?"

Zoé nods, "I am certain."

I nod thoughtfully but a strange look from Zoé brings me out of my thoughts, "What?"

"Do you not want to know how I am alive?" Zoé asks in confusion.

I grin at her, "Nah, the less I know, the less I can be convicted of by Zeus."

Zoé rolls her eyes but manages a small smile.

"What happened when I was banished?" I ask.

"Zeus decreed that I was to be banished also, but Artemis attempted to convince him otherwise, as I was one of her Hunters. Zeus finally allowed me to stay as lieutenant, but if I was ever to leave the Hunt, I was to be immediately banished to your island."

"It's too bad," I say seriously. "I could've used some company."

Zoé narrows her eyes but I laugh and pull her into another hug.

"Ogygia," I say when I pull back.

Zoé looks at me in confusion.

"That's what I called the island I was stuck on," I explain. "I had to name it something, it was my home for millenniums."

Zoé smiles, "Ogygia is a beautiful name."

"It was a beautiful island," I reply, smiling back at her.

Zoé's eyes travel to my neck, "You still have the necklace?"

"I didn't take it off until I got back here," I say.

Zoé looks at me in confusion, "Until?"

"Stupid Terminus made me take it off for the Senate meeting in case I decided to murder someone," I grumble.

Zoé gives me an amused look and I can almost read her thoughts.

"I would not have killed someone!" I exclaim. "At worst I would've broken a couples bones, but nothing else!"

Zoé looks at me and I cave, "Alright, I might've put an arrow in Octavian's throat, but he had the nerve to call us all traitors!"

"Calypso," Zoé says with an exasperated look. "I do not know who this Octavian is, nor any of your friends."

I look at her in shock, "Don't you? Octavian is just a typical boy, but I'll introduce you to my friends."

I drag Zoé back to the prow of the ship.

"Zoé, this is Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel, Leo and you know Annabeth and Percy," I say, pointing to each person in turn.

Leo holds out his hand for Zoé to shake and she narrows her eyes at it.

"Zoé," I say evenly. "Leo is alright, well, for a boy at least."

Leo sends me a small glare but Zoé grasps his hand tightly and shakes it firmly. I can't help but giggle when I hear a small crack from his hand.

Leo quickly withdraws his hand and curses loudly, grabbing his hand in his other hand. We all laugh at Leo misfortune, making him glare at us in between his swearing.

Zoé smirks, obviously pleased and moves to look over the railing.

"What the Hades?!" Leo hisses at me.

"She doesn't like boys," I say, grinning. "She was a Hunter of Artemis, what did you expect?"

I grab his hand and quickly detect his broken thumb. I heal the injury and quickly let go of his hand.

"There, all fixed," I say in a baby voice.

Leo glares at me and I smile back innocently at him.

I push him back to the wheel, "Go make sure we don't crash, Leo."

* * *

"Can this thing go any faster?" Percy complains for about the one hundredth time.

"Yes, Percy," Leo says sarcastically. "I'm just trying to make Annabeth die."

Percy tenses at that last statement and I quickly step in, "How much longer?"

Leo fiddles with the newly attached Archimedes sphere, "About two minutes."

"Alright," I say. "Percy, go get some ambrosia and nectar for Annabeth just in case."

Percy looks confused, "But I already got s-"

"Then go get some more," I say, not budging.

When Percy is gone, I glare at Leo, "Don't talk about Annabeth dying in front of him. She is not going to die and you do not need to stress Percy out."

Leo looks down and continues fiddling with the sphere, "I know. I'm worried too."

Suddenly Jason gives a yell and points at something in the distance, "Is that the Emmanuel Building?"

Leo glances at something on the controls, "Yeah, it is. Is the carpark supposed to be behind it?"

"Yes," Piper replies.

Percy comes running up the stairs, "What happened!?"

"We're here," I inform him.

Percy's face breaks into a slow grin as the Argo 2 slowly comes to a stop near the carpark.

I look at Leo, "Try not to destroy the building."

Leo presses a button on the Archimedes sphere and I hear several loud bangs, "No promises."

And then he fires.

The carpark ground collapses and falls, creating a thick layer of white dust over the hole.

"Leo, get us down there." I order, already standing by the rope ladder and ready to let it down.

The dust gets into my eyes as we hover above the hole but I ignore it. I drop the ladder and I am the first one down.

The first thing I see is a giant spider leaning over an injured Annabeth. Before I can even summon my bow, a green arrow sails past my head and into the spider. A net wraps itself around the spider and Annabeth quickly scoots out of the way.

Percy rushes over to her and hugs her, "What's wrong?!"

Annabeth grits her teeth, "My ankle, it was just starting to heal before Arachne fixed that."

Percy tries to feed her some ambrosia but she refuses it, "I already had some before I got to Arachne. I'll die if I have anymore."

And that's my cue.

I kneel beside Annabeth and examine her ankle. I screw up my face and concentrate on my powers. Underneath my hand, I can feel Annabeth's ankle healing. I intensify my efforts until her ankle is fully fixed.

I stand up, breathing heavily, "You all need to stop breaking your ankles, I'm not your personal Apollo."

Percy laughs and helps Annabeth up, giving me the ambrosia that Annabeth had refused. I take it gratefully and stuff it into my mouth.

"Thanks, Calypso," Annabeth smiles before kissing Percy.

Percy pulls away grinning, "Annabeth, guess who's here!"

Zoé steps away from our group and towards Annabeth.

"Zoé!" Annabeth says happily, letting go of Percy and instead engulfing Zoé in a hug.

"Annabeth," Zoé says warmly.

Annabeth pulls back, "I'm so sorry you got killed saving me. I-"

Zoé cuts her off, "It is fine. Percy already apologised, several times."

Annabeth smiles, "Meaning you couldn't get him to shut up?"

Zoé nods in confirmation, making Percy turn an unhealthy shade of red.

Annabeth stares at the giant hole in the ground, "It goes straight to Tartarus."

"A one way trip," Percy agrees.

"That's also where the Doors are," I say. "One side of them at least."

Everyone looks at me in confusion and I shrug it off, "Zoé and I will explain on the ship."

"Where's the statue?" Leo asks.

Annabeth points towards a dark section of the cavern, "There. The Athena Parthenos."

The statue glares down at me as I walk over to it.

Athena has ivory skin and a golden dress. In one hand, she holds Nike, goddess of victory and in the other hand, she holds a shield. From what I can tell, it looks exactly how I remember Athena.

"Where are we going to store this?" I ask of no one in particular.

Leo comes up beside me and squints at the forty foot statue, "I reckon I can fit it in the stables. Do you reckon the horses will mind?"

I give Leo a exasperated look, "We don't have horses."

"Right," Leo says hastily. "Annabeth, can you work the controls on the ship while we secure Athena? Percy can help you."

It's really thoughtful of Leo to say that. He, like everyone, knows that Percy is mentally freaking out. Percy needs to know that his girlfriend is safely out of harm's way and not in some dark cave. Of course that won't help if there's an ax murderer on the ship, but that's a minor detail.

Percy nods, relieved, "Frank, can you take us?"

Frank transforms into a giant eagle and Percy and Annabeth climb onto his back. Frank soars towards the ship and you can vaguely see Annabeth and Percy's dark silhouettes as they jump the narrow gap onto the ship.

Frank lands beside Hazel and turns back. Several ropes begin to fall down towards us and I have to jump back to avoid one hitting me in the head.

Leo picks up the end of a rope, "This was way easier in my head. How the Hades do we do this?"

Frank steps forward awkwardly, "I've got an idea. This sounds kinda weird, but what if I shoot her-"

" _Dude_ ," Leo interrupts. "You want to shoot a goddess?"

Frank turns a dark shade of red, "With a Hydra arrow."

Leo opens to mouth but I cut him off, "That's actually not a bad idea."

Leo, Hazel, Zoé, Piper and Jason all look at me like I'm crazy.

"Calypso, just because you're an expert in disrespecting gods, doesn't mean that Frank should shoot Athena," Piper says in exasperation.

"Aim for the chest," I advise Frank.

Frank slings his backpack of his back, which then turns into a bow. Frank picks a blunt green arrow from a mass of celestial bronze arrows and notches it.

"You're going to shoot Athena," Leo says. "You're going to _shoot_ _Athena_."

Frank fires the arrow and it hits the statue in the chest, immediately expanding to net the goddess.

There's a resounding slap noise as Leo hits his forehead with his hand, "You shot Athena. Zhang, you just _shot_ a goddess. You just shot a goddess with a vendetta against Romans."

"What happened to the rest of your arrows?" I ask Frank.

"They all got used in the battle with Otis," Frank says sheepishly.

I shrug, "They weren't going to survive until the battle with Gaia anyway."

"Alright, Leo!" I say, clasping my hands together. "Let's get the statue secured."

I grab two rope ends and make my way over to the Athena Pathronos. I pull at the net, testing it's strength. Satisfied, I loop a rope through the net and tie it back onto itself.

"Leo, help me," I order.

Leo grumbles to himself but makes his way over with a few rope ends.

We work together, knotting, double knotting and triple knotting the ropes. Finally, we finish and I take a few steps back from the statue to admire our work.

"Not bad."

Piper, Jason, Zoé, Hazel and Frank come up behind us.

"Tell Annabeth to lift it," I command Frank.

Frank turns into a giant eagle and takes off, soaring towards the ship in the sky.

Frank flies over the Argo 2 and never comes over the other side. He must've landed.

A few minutes later, the ropes start to tense and the statue rises about a metre off the ground. It then falls and slams into the already unstable floor.

A great rumbling noise sounds and the floor starts to shake.

Jason glances at the floor uneasily as cracks form in the ground. He grabs Piper by the waist, "Be right back for you guys."

Jason and Piper shoot into the sky and I look at the giant hole next to us. I grab Leo's arm, "Let's move away from the hole."

Leo gulps, "Agreed."

The floor by the crater starts to fall and Leo and I sprint towards the rope ladder. Hazel and Zoé have already reached it and gesture frantically for us to move faster.

Right beside me, a large chunk of concrete falls. Leo yelps as the ground beneath him gives way and starts to fall.

I lunge forward and grab his hand, but I am jolted from his sudden weight. As we fall I manage to grab onto a small ledge.

My breath comes in heavy pants and my arm starts to ache, but I keep my grip on Leo's hand, holding onto to it like its my lifeline.

"Calypso!" Hazel's voice reaches us.

"Hazel! Zoé!" I yell back as loudly as I can. "The Doors! Get to Epirus! They're the exit to Tartarus! Meet us there!"

"But-"

"Meet us there!" I insist.

"I will," Zoé yells back, her voice clearly cracking.

I look down at a dust covered Leo, "I hate you so much."

Leo manages to grin at me.

And then I let go, and we begin the descent into Tartarus.

 **-Stars**


	26. Escaping Tartarus

This book is now finished and the sequel, _Escaping Tartarus_ is up.

I will probably go through and change a few minor details in my story and fix a few of my earlier chapters, so if by any miracle someone decides to reread this and something is different, you're not crazy.

For those of you saying that Calypso is too overpowered, I didn't want this to be one of those stories where my main character is just spectating. Calypso is overpowered _because_ she's my main character. Now that she is in Tartarus, the rest of the characters will get a chance to step up.

Thanks for reading and special thanks to Calefe, ForeverAFairyTailLover159, it' .Annabeth93, 88wiseowls, Lout, seaweedgirl1117, gururaj20000, slayer2031, DiDiOthers, Percabethshipper121, Guitarboy38 and Loloree. I hope to see you all in Escaping Tartarus.

 **-Stars**


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